The Rescue
by Tallulah99
Summary: A dozen years have passed since Sarah's first visit to the Labyrinth and this time Sir Didymus has gotten himself into a world of trouble. Sarah swallows her pride and requests Jareth's aid. Is he willing to set aside past grievances and help her save Didymus? Who is the Borderlands Queen and what is her history with the Goblin King? And who is it that needs rescuing really?
1. Chapter 1

**The Rescue**

By: Tallulah

"I need your help."

Had he not already been seated, the Goblin King might actually have fallen over from the shock. Lounging as he was, with one booted leg hung over the curved edge of his throne, he was instead able to manage a condescending smirk. "Oh, you do, do you? Pray tell, to what do I owe the honor of this most _amusing_ request?"

Outwardly he gave a convincing impression of calm disinterest, but her sudden appearance on his doorstep that afternoon had surprised him more then he would have thought possible. Endless millennia of tedious obligation had deadened him to the anything like the stirrings of curiosity he felt when faced once again with this infuriating human girl.

Sarah leveled a peevish glare at him that detracted somewhat from her otherwise supplicating demeanor. She knelt, anachronistic in jeans and sneakers, on the ancient cobbled stone floors of the throne room, her face pale in the dim afternoon light that streaked through the dingy windows. "I would have given anything not to have to come to you, but I don't have any other choice." She took a deep breath. "Sir Didymus is in trouble."

Jareth quirked an indifferent eyebrow. "So?" He tilted his head to the side and looked at her expectantly.

She blinked. "So?" She pushed to her feet and parked her hands on her hips, her attempt at charming manners forgotten quickly in the face of her irritation. "That's all you're going to say? Don't you even want to know what happened? Don't you want to know _why_ he's in trouble?"

"Not especially, no," he said. It amused him that he could practically _see_ the frustrated indignation well up inside her, though she did an admirable job of keeping her composure.

It had been better than a dozen years since the last time he had been in the same room with Sarah Williams and they had been very generous years indeed. All of the childish roundness had been worn away, leaving a lush and lean woman with shoulder length brown hair and knowing hazel eyes. She was outwardly as lovely as he had known she would become, but the heat and determination that he remembered so well lingered still behind her gaze.

"Look, I know we don't have a great history…" She made another stab at diplomacy.

"Is that how you would describe it?" he interrupted. "Not a 'great history'? There are sections of my castle that are still yet to be repaired from your last visit. Admittedly, that has a lot do with the lackadaisical nature of goblin builders, but it wouldn't _need_ to be repaired were it not for you."

"What are you… Seriously? I wouldn't even have…" Sarah spluttered and then stopped. She closed her eyes and took a couple of deep breaths before continuing. "Okay, you don't like me. That's fine. I don't like you either. But please don't let your feelings for me dictate whether or not you step in here and help Didymus. He's in a lot of trouble, like the kind of trouble that gets you dead, and I am here to ask…no, not ask, _beg_ that you help him…please."

Jareth leaned forward on his throne with his elbows propped on his knees and gave her an unpleasant smile. "I find it telling that you assume my refusal to interfere has anything to do with you. A bit narcissistic of you, don't you think? You make take solace in the fact that it doesn't. I simply do not care."

"How can you not care?" She was honestly astonished by his complete lack of concern. It wasn't as if she had imagined him a benevolent ruler with an unexpected heart of gold, of course, but such easy dismissal still surprised her. "He's one of your subjects, isn't he? Don't you feel _some_ responsibility for their safety? Who's supposed to protect them if their own king won't?"

"I see," Jareth said, steepling his fingers in a thoughtful manner. "Now that one of your useless _friends_ is in a tight place, I have a _duty_, is that it? Let us look at the situation from a slightly different angle, shall we? I have turned my back and pretended not to notice your numerous visits over the years, but that does not mean that I have been unaware of them. My sworn subjects regularly engage with and entertain an enemy to my kingdom, that's you by the way, and I have, thus far, been kind enough to overlook it. That does not, however, mitigate the fact that they are committing treason. Do you know what a king generally does to a traitor, Sarah? You should be thankful that I do not choose to take a more active interest in either you or your friends."

Sarah pressed her lips together and looked away. "Fine," she managed finally, her voice shaking slightly. She balled her hands into fists to keep them from behaving likewise. "Hoggle and I will go after him ourselves. That Borderlands bitch can't be as bad as he thinks she is." She turned to leave, hoping she sounded more confident than she felt.

"What?!" The flicker of interest her presence had caused was nothing to the unfamiliar rush of adrenaline fueled emotion, of _panic_ that hit him at the mention of that name.

Sarah jumped at the violence in his tone and then stumbled backwards when she turned to find him towering over her. He had crossed the room in a blink. She backed abruptly into a wall and smacked her head against the stone.

"What did you say?" His voice was steady, but his eyes gleamed with an emotion Sarah wasn't sure she could, or even wanted to, identify. Even during their previous encounter, when she feared for her freedom if not her life, he had not intimidated her as completely as he did now. She kicked herself mentally for the careless assumptions that had brought her here – that he had no power over her, that she was his equal, that there must be some goodness in him _somewhere_. Looking up at him now, she could only think _danger_.

She swallowed convulsively. "The Q-queen of the Borderlands…that's what Hoggle said she calls herself. H-he said that Didymus went into the Forest…the Forbidden Forest and one of her guards took him." Sarah struggled to focus on what she was saying, a difficult task with the Goblin King glaring down at her from six inches away. Her field of vision was narrowed to his strange eyes and oddly sculpted brow. He suddenly seemed so alien, so _other_. "He said…Hoggle said that people who get taken, that they don't ever come back."

The light in the throne room had shifted as the pale yellow sun moved across the sky. Shadow cut a sharp diagonal line across Jareth's face leaving him in half light, half darkness. For a long moment neither of them moved. Sarah concentrated on breathing, which, at the moment, seemed a little less involuntary than usual. Some thought flickered across the king's features and she felt a desperate flash of hope that faded as quickly as it had come when he merely took a step back, giving her some much needed breathing room.

His mask of indifference slid firmly back in place. I wish you luck," he said finally, his voice emotionless.

"And that's it?" she asked with a humorless laugh, disappointment weighing her down like a stone. "That's all you're willing to do?"

"And what more should I?" he asked with infuriating apathy. "That part of the forest was named 'forbidden' many years ago and for a reason. Your foolish friend made a foolish choice and is now suffering the consequences. It is no concern of mine." He turned back to his throne.

Sarah couldn't take it anymore. "Do something selfless for once in your life, you spiteful, egotistical son of a bitch!" Her cheeks burned with color. "What chance do Hoggle and I stand alone? We _need_ you!"

Jareth hesitated for a moment without turning. He was a dark silhouette against the uncertain light. "I say this knowing full well that it will fall on deaf ears – give up, Sarah. Go home. Your Didymus is likely already dead. If you persist in this absurd rescue attempt, you will die too."

"I can't give up," she said softly. "He's my friend."

"I thought as much," he said. "Do what you will then, girl."

Sarah blinked back the tears that threatened to fall. "Fuck you, Jareth. Fuck you, very much."

A moment later the heavy outer doors boomed closed behind her, the sound echoing loudly through the chamber.

The goblins had all wisely taken themselves off to other parts of the castle when Sarah's arrival had first been announced. Now even the chickens had had the sense to make themselves scarce. Only the endless ticking of the thirteen hour clock broke the heavy silence that crept through the empty corridors.

Jareth stood alone in the center of the throne room with his eyes closed for a long time. The struggle to rein in his emotions cost him more effort than he would have expected, or liked. It felt like failure. He had managed for so long to push her to the back of his mind and out of his thoughts. Not to forget her, no, that was far too much to hope for, but to soften the raw edges her very existence had worn into his soul by means of purposeful neglect.

The Borderlands Queen, again, after so many centuries… "Elsbeth," He whispered her name softly into the empty room. He had not spoken it aloud in many hundreds of years. Even now it was like acid on his tongue. He shuddered.

He could not, _would not_ allow himself to wonder what hope sweet, young Sarah Williams and her absurd collection of friends might have of encountering the mad queen and living to tell about it, much less succeeding in their rescue attempt and making it back home with that wretched Didymus alive and in tow. If they failed, if they _died_, he could not have prevented it. He had warned her, had he not? He had _forbade_ his subjects from entering the Borderlands, had planted an entire _forest_ to keep them out. How much plainer could he have made it? What more could have been expected of him than that? A ghost of a voice whispered viciously _You could not save the one, and so you save none? Not even The Girl? Are you a coward or merely a fool?_.

He shook his head and stalked angrily back to his throne, flinging himself violently into it. He forcefully pushed away the familiar lingering thoughts of long, chestnut hair and serious hazel eyes to find himself seeing instead messy curls as black as a raven's wing and icy blue eyes, soulless and cold. With a sound of disgust, he twisted on his throne as if trying to escape physical pain.

_Time_, he reminded himself fiercely with each breath, a familiar mantra. It was said that time healed all wounds and if he had an excess of anything, it was that most relentless of forces. He glanced at the heavy clock on the wall that slowly counted on towards eternity, each tick marking off one less heartbeat to be endured, one less moment before the memory of even this time would begin to fade. The sharp, knife-like pang that lanced through him now at the prospect of Sarah entering the Borderlands unprotected – that too _would_ fade over the years. The memory of her spirit and fire, her beauty and laughter and flashing eyes, those things would go too…in time. He simply needed to be patient, as ever. He must simply…wait. _Coward, then_, the inner voice mocked mercilessly.

Sometime later, a lone goblin ventured into the silent room with a tray. "Your Majesty? Um…cook thought you might like some dinner? Or perhaps some wine?" Tentatively, Murch crossed the room to where the king slouched on his throne, glowering stone-faced into the shadows. He placed the tray carefully on the sideboard, wincing at the unnaturally loud scraping sound it made. He cast a furtive look at the silent king and, wishing he were anywhere other than where he was, hurriedly went about the task of pouring the wine and arranging the plate.

The king had been prone to these black moods for as long as Murch could remember. There were any number of things that might trigger a sudden, sullen, brooding phase of changeable temper and violent outbursts. Most goblins that worked inside the castle learned quickly to avoid their master at all costs when he was taken with one of these episodes lest they be booted across the room, dropped into an oubliette or worse still, cast into the bog. But someone must still wait on the king even during these times and the short straw tonight had been drawn by Murch.

He took a fortifying breath and carried the tray over to the throne, carefully, and he hoped, unobtrusively, avoiding both his majesty's feet and the riding crop that was gripped tightly in one gloved fist.

"Your dinner, majesty," he said with a quick bow. He stepped back and felt a trickle of relief when Jareth wordlessly reached for the brimming goblet of goblin wine. He drained it in a few long swallows and then thrust it back out in Murch's direction.

The goblin tottered forward and cautiously began to refill it from the bottle, his hands shaking under such immediate scrutiny. "You must be pleased," he found himself saying unexpectedly, "that the Borderlands Queen will rid you so easily of the human girl." He stopped, wide-eyed at his own effrontery and stuttered, sloshing wine onto the floor. "That is…um…when she…uh…" He froze at the cold expression that contorted the king's face.

"Murch, isn't it?" Jareth's voice was calm and perfectly controlled, but danger dripped like acid from every word.

He managed a jerky nod and a high pitched sound that may have passed for affirmation.

"Murch, I am going to give you one opportunity to turn around and get out of here as fast as you possibly can. I'll not warn you again."

With much scrabbling and slipping on the smooth cobblestone floor, Murch managed to make it out the door just before the half-full bottle of goblin red exploded against the stone wall behind him. He slammed the door with some effort and then leaned against it, chest heaving, as Jareth raged on the other side.

A handful of the castle staff joined him in the hall and stood silently listening as their king tore the throne room noisily to pieces. They gazed at each other with a shared combination of anxiety and sadness as the crashing, breaking, splintering chaos continued unabated for more than a quarter of an hour.

And then there was silence.

Slowly and with the utmost caution, one of the goblins cracked the door and surveyed the devastation on the other side. After a lengthy assessment, he opened it further and they all crept into the room.

Every stick of furniture, Jareth's throne included, had been turned to kindling – smashed into unrecognizable jagged remains. Candles and broken glass littered the floor, ancient tapestries and paintings had been ripped from the walls and destroyed without quarter. Nothing had escaped destruction.

Across the room, one ripped curtain danced on its broken fixture, carried through the shattered panes of the window by the cool evening breeze. Murch picked his way through the debris and swept it aside, his sharp goblin eyes searching the horizon.

In the distance the tiny shape of an owl, an infinitesimal dark spot against the glare of the setting sun, disappeared in the direction of the Forbidden Forest.

"I knows I said we didn't have time to lose, but shouldn't we have waited 'til after sunrise at least?" Hoggle dropped another stack of twigs next to their campfire and lowered himself gingerly to the ground.

Sarah poked gloomily at the flames with a stick, sending a flurry of cheerful sparks up into the night air. "And what, gotten a nice restful night's sleep?" She shook her head and propped her chin on her bent knee. "No, at least we've covered part of the way and we'll be that much closer in the morning. We should make the edge of the Borderlands by early afternoon."

"And then what?" Jareth asked.

One second the spot across the fire from her had been empty, the next it wasn't.

Sarah startled and dropped her stick with an expletive. Hoggle cried out and scuttled backwards.

The Goblin King was unruffled. "I must admit," he said, "I am dying of curiosity as to what your plan might be." He took off his gloves, releasing one elegant finger at a time and then held out his hands, warming them in the glow of the fire. "Are you going to lay siege to her castle? Take out a few guards and slip unseen through the corridors? Go up to the front door and knock?" He looked up then and seemed puzzled to find both Sarah and Hoggle frozen in place wearing expressions of surprise and horror, respectively. "What? Did you not say you wished to have my help?"

Sarah blinked. "Well…yes, but you kind of gave the impression that you weren't particularly interested in offering it." She glanced over at Hoggle who still looked poleaxed. "Did I misunderstand? Because, if so, I gotta say you give off some _seriously_ mixed signals."

"No. I would not say you misunderstood," he said. "You may call it a change of heart, if you will." He shrugged. "It matters not. I'm here now and that is all that is important."

"You think so, huh?" Sarah said bemusedly. Whatever had changed his mind had _certainly_ not affected his ego.

Hoggle had finally managed to collect himself and made his way around to Sarah's side, keeping a suspicious eye trained on Jareth as he did so. "I don't like it, Sarah," he said, softly. "Jareth's a rat and I ain't never known a rat to offer help to nobody."

"I can hear you, you know." Jareth said, coolly.

Hoggle quailed, but then squared his shoulders and turned on his sovereign with his chin thrust out. "You're right. If I'm gonna call somebody a rat, I'm gonna do it to their face. You're a rat, Jareth! And I don't trust you!" He gave a curt nod and then retreated quickly behind Sarah's back.

Jareth looked more surprised than angry. He would never have imagined the little dwarf might have had it in him. "My, my, if Higgle hasn't gone and gotten himself a spine." He made a show of leaning off to the side to see around Sarah, "Well, a little one anyway." He smiled at her then, his pointed teeth flashing in the firelight. "What a man…or a dwarf won't do for a pretty woman."

Sarah frowned at him. "Try not to be too unpleasant, Your Majesty. I know it's a lot to ask." His mere presence at their campfire was not yet enough to mitigate his outright refusal to help earlier. She needed him here, but she didn't trust him. Not yet. And probably not ever. There was no way he had simply decided to tag along out of the kindness of his heart, presuming that he actually _had_ one. He had some ulterior motive for being there. She just wondered what it could be.

He held his hands up in a gesture of conciliation. "I merely meant to come along and offer my help in your time of need. If you would prefer that I go…?"

"I won't say that I'm not glad you're here," she admitted grudgingly, "but I honestly didn't expect you to come after our… conversation earlier." She eyed him warily over the leaping flames and then reached for one of the skewers propped just inside the heat of the fire that held the roasted rabbit that had been intended for their dinner that evening. Neither she nor Hoggle had been able to conjure much of an appetite themselves. "I guess I should at least offer you something to eat."

"We didn't bring enough food for three," Hoggle added belligerently, popping up over Sarah's shoulder, carefully keeping her between him and the Goblin King.

Sarah winced apologetically. "He's right, I'm afraid. I mean we did bring a little extra for Didymus in case he uh…" Her stomach lurched even as her mind resisted finishing the thought.

"Is still alive when you get there?"

Sarah gave him a cold look. "Of _course_ he's still alive. But it's been a few days and he might not be getting enough to eat."

"Oh, if she's remembers to feed him at all, I'd be surprised," Jareth said matter-of-factly. He leaned back against a conveniently placed tree stump and crossed his legs, looking absurdly comfortable on the stony ground. "That's not the kind of thing she tends to concern herself with. You're right to worry about his well being, though. She is not gentle with her playthings. His best bet is if she forgets that he's there altogether."

Sarah glanced at Hoggle's stricken expression and fished a handy rock out of their make-shift fire pit. She winged it skillfully, hitting Jareth squarely in the chest. "Asshole," she hissed at him. "If that's the kind of help you plan on being, go back to your castle, _Highness_. She wasn't sure if it was just nerves or previous experience that kept her waffling constantly back and forth between being relieved and irritated by his presence.

He frowned, rubbing the stinging spot on his chest. "My apologies, but I had assumed you knew something of what you were preparing to face. Do you know anything of what you are up against?" He looked back and forth between them expectantly. "No? Nothing?" He shook his head with disgust. "Fools. You have no business even attempting this ridiculous quest."

"We know the bitch took Didymus and that's the only thing that matters," Sarah said defensively. Her bravado was like a match on a moonless night, burning fiercely, but ineffectively in the dark.

Jareth gave a derisive laugh. "And so you packed a picnic lunch and headed off for a stroll through the woods to fetch him back? _Fools_!" he repeated. "What was the idiotic mutt doing in the Forbidden Forest anyway? Surely even he knows better than to cross into her lands?"

Sarah fidgeted uncomfortably, but said nothing.

"It is unimportant at this point, I suppose," Jareth said, letting his gaze linger on Sarah until she looked away. "And so, for that matter, is the lack of provisions. Hogwit is going home."

Hoggle stared at him in slack-jawed disbelief. "No, I ain't!" he managed at last. "Didymus is my friend too and I'll not leave him to the mercy of the Borderlands Queen!"

'Nor your darling Sarah to the mercy of me, I imagine," Jareth said with a mocking smile. "Is that right?"

Hoggle sputtered a bit, but then crossed his arms and puffed his chest up. "Yeah, that's right! I'll not let you bother the lady or trouble her none while I got breath in my body."

"Hoggy, you'll go home now, on your own power or I will drop kick you into the bog myself." His voice was conversational, but there was little doubt as to whether or not he meant what he said. He leaned forward and gave him a nasty smile. "We can see about that whole 'breath in your body' thing too, if necessary."

"Hey!" Sarah said. "That's enough. Quit talking to him like that."

In a flash, Jareth was looming over Sarah, his face set into lines of peevish annoyance. "What is it precisely that you want from me, _Sarah_?" He asked. "Do you actually want my help or do you just want me to tag along so there will be someone there to watch the two of you die?"

Sarah opened and closed her mouth a couple of times, but couldn't seem to form an actual sentence.

"Hoggle will go home because he is a liability. He has no skill, no speed, no strength – no talent whatsoever that would make him a commodity in a confrontation with the Queen of the Borderlands. Did he tell you that she is also called the Mad Queen? She'll kill him as soon as look at him; to be sure she'll likely attempt the same with either you or me, but there is at least a _chance_ that we may succeed. I have offered you my help, and yes, I assure you, you will need it. The Queen has at least as much magic as I do myself. You were right before – you have no hope of facing her alone."

Sarah glanced over at Hoggle and Jareth shot out a hand to capture her chin, forcing her to look back at him, his oddly matched eyes boring into hers. "No. Hope," he repeated, enunciating each word with a gentle shake of his hand. He released her quickly and stepped back. "Chose your path, Sarah. It's up to you. Certain death," he gave her a shark-toothed smiled, "or only _likely_ death."

The comforting crackle of the fire and the singing of the night-loving insects were the only sound in the small clearing. Outside their brightly lit circle the darkness pressed in close, seeming to listen with patient interest while Sarah considered her options. It seemed an impossible decision – walking away from a friend whose intentions she was sure of and whose devotion was unwavering in order to accept the help of a powerful, but fundamentally unreliable, ally or rejecting that offer altogether and embarking on a doomed rescue attempt on their own.

She knew little of the Borderlands Queen and then only what Hoggle had told her, some of which seemed implausible at best. Hoggle himself had admitted most of what he knew was legend, rumors passed in the form of boogey-man stories shared across mugs of goblin ale down at the pub, but Sarah had long ago learned never to take anything for granted in this place. Things were not always as they seemed – be it a mad queen or a Goblin King with dubious motives. There was always more than met the eye.

Of one thing she was absolutely certain – with powerful magic involved, she and Hoggle didn't stand a chance on their own. She might be willing to gamble with her own safety, but not Hoggle's and certainly not Didymus'. She was willing to risk much to ensure that her friends made it back home in one piece. They had spent thirteen years risking the wrath of their king for the mere pleasure of her friendship and she wasn't going to repay them with any half-measure. Though she hated the conclusion she _must_ come to given her options, there had never been a real choice to be made, not really.

She looked at Hoggle and bit her lip.

"Sarah, no!" Hoggle cried, seeing her decision on her face as she made it. He grabbed her hand in both of his. "This ain't right! You can't go with him all…alone like this! Who's gonna protect you from _him_?"

Jareth rolled his eyes. "Come now, Hogwood, do you honestly think you would be the _slightes_t impediment if I wished to harm your sweet Sarah?" One moment he was standing a few feet in front of her and the next he was behind her, his arms wrapped tightly around her shoulders, pinning her arms to her side. "As you see," he went on calmly while Sarah struggled ineffectually in his grasp. "I could do anything I wished to her before you could blink, much less dash to her aid in a daring rescue attempt." He relaxed his grip and Sarah stumbled and fell to her knees.

"Goddammit, Jareth!" Sarah gasped. She lurched to her feet and turned on him, her face white with anger. "If you ever do anything like that to me again –"

"You'll what?" Jareth challenged and then shook his head. "You're both missing the point. I have not harmed the lovely Miss Williams before now despite innumerable opportunities. It should, at the very least, seem _unlikely_ to you that I would choose such an inconvenient time and place as this to exact whatever sordid revenge you seem to think I am harboring plans for." He crossed his arms and looked at them expectantly.

Sarah fumed silently, desperately wishing for another avenue, some alternative that she hadn't yet thought of, but time was slipping away from them and since it was the one thing Didymus _might_ have going for him, she could not let indecision take it away. "He's right, Hoggle," she said finally, grudgingly. She leaned over to dust off her jeans and glared up at the unperturbed king. "He's an asshole, but he's right."

"Sarah –" Hoggle began, his tone pleading.

She shook her head. "No. It's bad enough that Didymus got into this mess because of me. I won't risk losing you too if I can help it."

"It wasn't your –"

"Hoggle," She interrupted. "Please." She knelt and hugged her friend fiercely, burying her face in his shoulder for a long moment. "Go home, Hoggle. Go home and be safe. And pray for us, and for Didymus. I think we're going to need it before it's all said and done."

"I will." Hoggle said finally, grudgingly. He looked over her dark head at the Goblin King, his craggy face set with deep lines of worry. "Don't let nothin' happen to her, Jareth," he said, thickly. "Take care of her…please."

To his credit, Jareth merely nodded. His eyes were hard to read in the erratic shadows created by the fire, but there was no mockery in his expression, no quirked lips that might indicate his disdain for the request and for that, Hoggle was grateful.

With the decision made, there seemed to be no reason to delay Hoggle's departure. Night had set in, but the dark was no impediment to the dwarf's innate sense of direction. Red-eyed and sniffling, Sarah helped him re-pack his satchel. She walked with him to the edge of the clearing and hugged him once more for a long time. The shoulder of his jerkin was damp when she released him, reluctantly, to begin his lonely journey back to the outskirts of the Labyrinth. They did not say goodbye. He cast one last worried glance back and then disappeared into the darkening woods.

Wordlessly, Sarah returned to her spot by the fire and tucked her legs beneath her. She stared silently into the flames, the dancing yellow light giving color and animation to her otherwise pale and wan features.

"Are you afraid?" Jareth asked eventually. He knew the answer. It took nothing more than a glance to see the rigid tension in the lines of her body, like a spring under pressure. Her humanity made her a dichotomy – she wanted to stay, but her instinct was to run, to save herself. He knew that it took an extraordinary force of will for her to be here, to fight her nature and stay for the sake of her friend.

"I'd be stupid not to be," she said without looking at him. And then a moment later she sighed and closed her eyes. "I'm terrified. I've never been so afraid in my entire life. "

"You can turn back as well, you know," he said quietly. "This isn't your world. You cannot be expected to go up against powers you don't understand." He watched her carefully, unsure if he wanted her to accept the offered escape or not.

She shook her head, stubborn. "No. I'm not going back without him."

"What can you hope to do for him?" he asked reasonably. "You're no match for her, Sarah. I think you know that. Why not let me send you home? I can travel faster without you and have your foolish friend back home before you have breakfast in the morning."

"Not a chance," she said. "It's my fault that this happened and I'm not going home until I know that he's safe. Besides, I hate to say that I don't trust you – "

"But you don't trust me."

"Not as far as I can throw you, no." She gave him a mildly apologetic shrug. "No offense."

"None taken," he said easily. He watched her stare into the flames without seeing them, her gaze distant and sad. More than just worry for her friend troubled her thoughts. Guilt clouded her mind like a dark shadow, a distraction that they could ill afford.

"Why was Didymus in the Forbidden Forest?"

She flinched. "Does it matter?"

"Probably not," he admitted, "nonetheless, I would like to know why." He cocked his head to the side and looked at her expectantly.

Sarah scowled. "What difference does it make why? He was there and he was taken and that's all there is to it."

"Sarah," he said, with an exasperated sigh. "Perhaps you have not considered it, but I am risking my neck just as much as you are risking yours. A little transparency is not too much to ask!"

She pressed her lips together and looked away, unable to hide the shine of the tears she refused to let fall. "He wanted to give me a gift," she said eventually. She sniffled loudly and then laughed. "God, it's so ridiculous it's almost _funny_." She took a deep breath and went on. "I had planned to visit on my birthday in a couple of days. It's a bit of a tradition…but I guess you already know that, don't you?" She glanced up at him. "They like to make a bit of a production out of it. Hoggle bakes a cake and Didymus and Ludo come and –"

"Ah, yes!" Jareth interrupted. "I had nearly forgotten the great red yeti. And where is he, pray tell? I would have thought that having one of the singers in your merry little band would have been quite an advantage."

"Hoggle and I thought it best not to tell him. We worried that he might just go after Didymus on his own and end up getting himself captured or killed in the process. At least this way we know _he_ is safe."

"Tsk tsk", Jareth tutted with a smirk. "Keeping secrets from your friends?"

She scowled at him. "Why are you like this? You don't have to be, you know."

"My apologies," he said, with a slight bow. "Pray continue."

"_Anyway_," she began again, glaring at him. "Didymus said he wanted to do something special this year – wanted to get me something I couldn't possibly already have. I didn't know what to tell him. Usually he and Hoggle and Ludo make something together. They've done some incredible things – a memory box of black crystal, hair pins with the most amazing metal work – but that wasn't 'good enough' for Didymus this year. There was just no convincing him otherwise." She sighed and slumped forward, digging her fingers into her hair. "So I asked him for a flower. Not just any flower of course. "Oh no! I had to be _specific_. I knew he'd never go for something simple like 'a red rose from the king's garden' so I just asked him for a rare flower. I said, 'find me the rarest flower in the Undergound.'"

"The black starflower," Jareth said immediately, with sudden understanding. All of the random pieces suddenly fit into place.

A memory of Elsbeth came unbidden, making him flinch. He saw her, dancing barefoot through a veritable sea of the delicate five-petaled flowers. They were orange, he remembered, bright and cheerful as a sunflower on a summer day, or they had been then, before she had taken a liking to them. "See," she had cried, throwing her arms wide as every flower in the field bled to black, their cheerful hue washed away like watercolors in a rainstorm. "Aren't they bee-you-tee-ful now?" He shook his head to banish the thought. He hadn't been able to stand the sight of them after that. He neither wanted nor needed anything that reminded him so forcibly of her and had had them all torn out of the Labyrinth gardens many years ago.

Sarah was nodding regretfully. "I didn't know! How could I have known that the rarest damn plant in your whole messed up world only grew in the Forbidden Forest?" She wrapped her arms tightly around her legs and returned to staring gloomily into the fire. "I would never have asked it if I had realized."

"Stop moping, Sarah," he said, and went on before the sudden storm clouds on her face could turn into a rainstorm. "You know very well that you _couldn't_ have known and it's absurd for you to blame yourself for Didymus's misfortune. _He_ knew. I made sure long ago that all of my subjects knew to avoid the Borderlands. It's right in the name I gave it – 'Forbidden Forest'." He shook his head and looked annoyed. "You'll take full blame for some harebrained idea that chivalrous little simpleton has, but no culpability whatsoever for the near destruction of my castle which you _were_ directly responsible for. You humans are perfectly unfathomable."

Sarah could think of many choice responses to Jareth's diatribe, but managed to swallow them all with effort. "So why are you helping me then?"

"As I've already said, I had a change of heart."

Sarah snorted. "Yeah, and if you believe that I've got some prime real estate down in the bog that I'd like to interest you in. I call bullshit, Jareth."

"Call whatever you like, Miss Williams." His imperturbable calm was _really_ starting to get on her nerves.

"Alright, how about this one then – why is Hoggle a liability, but I'm not?"

He quirked an eyebrow. "Who says you're not?"

She gave him a dirty look. "You said Hoggle didn't have the skill, speed, or strength to be any use against the Borderlands Queen and that's why you wanted him gone. I don't have any of those things either, but you didn't tell me to leave. Why not?"

"Would you have gone?"

"No."

"Well there you are then."

"That's not the only reason. Why else?"

He gave a put-upon sigh. "You're not going to let this go, are you?"

"Nope. Not planning to. I've got all night and nothing better to do." She crossed her arms mulishly and sat back.

Jareth couldn't help but be pleased by her defiant attitude, inconvenient and annoying as it might be given the circumstances. Whatever else had changed over the years, she had not lost the thread of iron he had first noticed in her as a child. Her will was as strong as his indeed.

"The queen is...not over-fond of the goblins."

"Hoggle's not a goblin. Neither is Didymus for that matter. Try again."

Jareth flapped a hand, dismissing her interruption. "Close enough, or at least it is as far as she's concerned. Say 'non-humans' then, if you prefer. She is human herself…or at least she was once." He appeared lost in thought for a moment. "I'm not entirely sure what she is now."

"She's…human?" Sarah blinked in surprise.

"As I said."

"You seem to know a lot about her."

"And why wouldn't I? It is my kingdom, isn't it?"

She gave a short laugh. "Why do I think you're not telling me everything?"

"Sarah, my dear," he said with a smile, "I could fill a book with all of the things I'm not telling you, possibly a shelf full of books…maybe even an actual library."

"Yeah, I get it. I get it," she said, annoyed. She poked violently at the fire with a stick. "Big smart king knows more than the sad little human who came to him for help. Does your ego _really_ need this much of a boost?"

He narrowed his eyes at her. "All you need to know, _girl_ is that I do know what we will be facing. You know so little as to be a danger to yourself and to anyone else that happens to get in the way."

"So tell me! Jesus, Jareth! I appreciate that you're here. I do. I know you don't _have_ to be here and, while I suspect you have your own reasons for it, I'm thankful that you've decided to help. But why leave me in the dark, dammit? What's the big secret? Are we really better off if I blunder in there tomorrow with no idea what I'm doing?"

Jareth was silent for so long, Sarah was starting to suspect that he had simply chosen to ignore her. She was just gearing up for another attempt when he spoke.

"Elsbeth was a mistake."

"Her name's Elsbeth?"

"Stop interrupting," he said testily. "Yes, her name was... _is_ Elsbeth. And as I said, she was a mistake." Mentioning her name made him feel sick; talking about her was nearly intolerable. He swallowed with effort and went on. "She wasn't the first. There were many before her, but she was...different from the other children."

"She was wished away?" Sarah's eyes were huge in the firelight, the tension of her situation eased for the moment by her fascination.

"If you interrupt after every sentence, the telling will take more time than I think we have at our disposal."

"Sorry," she said, too unabashedly interested in hearing more to be bothered by his irritable tone. "I won't interrupt again. Go on." She drew her knees up and propped her chin on one of them, looking at him attentively.

"It was her mother that made the wish. That's not so unusual, of course. It's almost always the mother, present company notwithstanding, of course. I'm sure it would make a fascinating study on the complex behavior patterns of postpartum women, but generally speaking, it is they that do most of the wishing. Because of that, almost all of the children that come here are less than two years old. Elsbeth was ten."

It was his turn to stare sightlessly into the fire.

"She was dirty and bruised when she arrived at the castle, malnourished and wary. She cowered away from me, but it was more out of habit more than actual fear I think." His lips twisted at the memory. "She was well beyond the capacity to feel real fear by the time she came here." He could see her still as she had stood in the throne room that first day, flesh sickly and pale beneath ill-fitting and filthy clothes. Her eyes were startlingly blue, the color of warm tropical waters, huge and curious behind shaggy grayish hair that, once cleaned, would prove to be almost impossibly black. In her skinny arms she had clutched a misshapen stuffed bear like a lifeline. It was her most precious possession.

"She had been abused, of course." He managed to go on matter-of-factly despite the flash of anger and desperate pain that mixed so indelibly in his memory of that time. "Brutally and for most of her life. Her mother was not much better off, as you might expect. But she was very grateful that her daughter would forever be beyond the reach of her husband."

"She didn't try to get her back?" Sarah whispered, forgetting her promise in her horror. "She just let you keep her?"

"She saw this as a new life for her child. Any new life, no matter how alien or strange, must have seemed better than the one she was living."

"But to never see her again? To willingly walk away from her own child? I just can't imagine..." She trailed off, lost in reflection and then suddenly remembered that she wasn't supposed to be interrupting. "Sorry. So what happened?"

Jareth shrugged, his enthusiasm for the subject waning rapidly. "I brought her to the castle beyond the Goblin City and...I suppose you could say I 'raised' her…or tried to, anyway. I pitied her circumstance and the life she had…I cannot say 'lived', rather 'endured', and so I tried to let her be a child at last - to play and laugh and run as a child should, but there was no hope for it. Her childhood had been ripped from her long before she came to the Underground." He realized abruptly that he was clenching his fists so tightly that he had drawn a row of bloody crescent-shaped marks along the base of his palms. He loosened his grip with an effort and looked across the fire. "Imagine a life built around fear, pain and paranoia, compounded for all of eternity." He dropped his head, feeling a wave of tiredness as centuries of regret engulfed him. "She is mad, Sarah. She lost her reason long, long ago. She became…dangerous and was exiled to the Borderlands for her protection. Hers and everyone else's."

Sarah was silent for a long time as she tried to reconcile what she knew, or _thought_ she knew of Jareth with this tale of unexpected kindness and pity. Her estimation of the Borderlands Queen had changed too, but whether she was more or less afraid or whether pity mitigated her fear, she couldn't quite decide. "So why...why didn't you just turn her into a goblin? Isn't that what you're supposed to do? The whole 'thirteen hours and then you become one of us forever' thing?"

He shrugged uncomfortably. "Pity, I suppose". He scowled at the surprised look she cut at him. "What? I _am_ capable of feeling, you know." He gave an annoyed shake of his head and went on. "Every decision I made in regards to Elsbeth was wrong, well intentioned, but wrong. I learned from my mistakes, hard lessons that they were. She is one of the reasons, in fact the main reason really, that all of the children who are wished away and go unclaimed become goblins now. It is...simpler."

Sarah felt a familiar, and given the subject matter, welcome flash of irritation. "Simpler for whom? You or them?"

"Both," he said, simply. "Immortality is both the blessing and the curse of the Underground. Nothing ages here; not really. The goblins…well, their minds are better suited to the rigors of eternity. They don't have the same capacity for discontent that we do. A human child, broken and abused, wished away by disinterested parents at such an advanced age doesn't stand a chance here."

They lapsed into silence.

A breeze cut through the campsite making the invisible leaves sough in the dark branches overhead. The fire guttered and danced and then settled back into its familiar pattern.

"I'm sorry," Sarah said, quietly after a time.

Jareth looked up, startled. "You are? Why?"

"Because that must have been difficult for you." She looked across the fire at him, her head tilted to the side. "You don't have much experience being on the receiving end of sympathy, do you?"

"Not as such, no." He flashed a brief smile, his pointed teeth gleaming in the firelight. "It's not often that I am comforted by the balm of a woman's tender mercies."

Sarah snorted and rolled her eyes. "Well, there goes _that_ moment." She was oddly grateful for the opportunity to change the tenor of their conversation and wondered mildly if he was too. "So, what's next? What's our…_plan_ or whatever for tomorrow?"

"The first thing we're going to do is _ask_. There is some chance, however slight, that she might be willing to return him to us without incident."

"So we're going to just knock on the front door and say 'hey, crazy lady, can we have our friend back?' Is that it?" She gave him an incredulous look.

"I would probably avoid using the word 'crazy' within Elsbeth's hearing. She is a bit touchy about it."

"Duly noted. But you're saying there's an actual chance that she might _willingly_ let him go? How slight are we talking?"

"Very, very slight."

"Oh well, of course. And if, or _when_ she says no? Assuming she doesn't just kill us outright on her doorstep, do we have any sort of backup plan in mind?"

"We'll worry about that part when we get there," he said with a shrug.

Sarah rubbed her face with both hands, battling with how very strange and dream-like this whole day had been on top of the realization the she was charging, mostly blind, towards a very real danger. She thought she understood how Alice must have felt on the other side of the rabbit hole. "Surely there's a better way than walking up the front path?"

"If you're hoping I can simply 'magic' us in there and 'magic' Didymus out, the answer is no. As I have already told you, Elsbeth has magical ability herself. She will have the castle warded to prevent just such an intrusion. We will _not_ be able to sneak in under her nose. We are better off with a direct attempt and, failing that, gauging our prospects based on the situation as we find it."

"Which means?"

Lying back, he pillowed his head on his crooked arm and looked up at through the canopy of leaves to the distant twinkle of stars. "Which means, follow my lead and do what I tell you to do when I tell you to do it." He flicked his cloak out, covering his legs. "It is best that you sleep now. You will need your strength and wits, about you tomorrow."

Sarah followed his example and stretched out on the sleeping bag she had brought from home. There was something oddly incongruous about the LL Bean label sewn into the hem and she picked at it absentmindedly. "Hoggle said it's a good day's hike to get to the Borderlands – " she began, but Jareth cut her off.

"We'll make her palace gates in time for breakfast," he said. "I wouldn't recommend eating it if she should think to offer any, but we'll be there in time, nonetheless."

Sarah raised her head up high enough to see his dark outline across the dying flames of the fire. "How do you figure?"

"Really?"

She flushed in realization, feeling foolish. "Magic? We're traveling by magic?" Her voice was a few octaves higher than she intended.

"You would prefer that we waste a day slogging through heavy, uncharted woods?" he asked, sounding mildly amused. "How impractical. Besides, it isn't as if you've never traveled by magical means before. What do you think that portal in your bedroom mirror is?"

"You know about that?" She asked it almost inadvertently and then felt foolish again. Of course he knew.

This time he laughed, a rich and silky sound that Sarah had never heard coming from him before. "You don't give me nearly enough credit for being aware of what is going on in my own kingdom, you know. Yes, I 'know about that'. Really, Sarah," he chided. "Very little happens here that I am not made aware of, especially if it involves magic."

"Oh."

"Yes, 'oh'. Now go to sleep."

A/N: This was written for the 2013 Labyrinth_ex fic exchange over on LiveJournal.

My prompt was _"Poor Jareth, always the villain of the piece, forever the bad guy, but what if just for once he was the hero in the tale (intentional or reluctant)? After all, good guys always get the girl – right?". _

It sort of...got away from me. Other parts to come as I get them proofread.

Thanks for reading!


	2. Chapter 2

The morning dawned slowly. Color crept furtively into the landscape, gradually transforming the monochromatic world into full on, brightly-painted morning. The wood clung stubbornly to the hushed quiet of night as the sun's early rays explored the day with golden fingers, making everything seem to glow softly from within. A single note from an early-rising bird rang out in the silence and then, as if it had been signal, the rest of the wood exploded into life with the sounds of nature.

Sarah watched the transformation with quiet awe. She could not remember the last sunrise she had seen, but she was sure it had never seemed as glorious or magical as this one. She refused to indulge the insidious little voice that whispered that it might be her last.

In a clump of grass near her shoulder she watched the laborious movements of an ungainly ladybug as it clambered its way over a leaf by her head. She smiled at its dogged effort and wondered that it didn't give up the awkward attempt and simply fly away.

Suddenly the figure of a blue-winged fairy zipped up, snatched the ladybug, stuck a tiny tongue out at Sarah and zipped away, the frantic insect wriggling furiously in its grasp.

"I hate this place," she said out loud and sat up. Turning her head she found herself looking directly into Jareth's unfathomable eyes.

"Good morning," he said, with an ironic smile. "Sleep well?"

"Nope. You?" She stood up and stretched, her muscles protesting. She had slept, but little and that poorly. Nightmares had forced her awake more times than she could count and finally she had given up and simply lain awake, quietly in the dark, waiting for the day to begin. She felt, and knew she looked, like she'd been drug backwards through the bog. She wished desperately for a shower, but settled for splashing a bit of her drinking water on her hands and scrubbing her face vigorously. Even that little bit of indulgence made her feel more human. She set to combing her hair out with her fingers and pulled it into a haphazard pony-tail.

Jareth, naturally, looked as if he'd spent the night in a five star hotel. His fair, fly-away hair looked as it always did and there wasn't a single streak of dirt or smudge on him anywhere. Even his eyes were clear and bright. She looked down at her own wrinkled and grubby clothes and thought how unfair the universe could be.

He shook out his cloak and flipped it back over his shoulder with a practiced swirl. "Break your fast and quickly," he said. "The sooner we are on our way, the sooner you can get that fool Didymus back to his bog."

Sarah resisted the urge to scowl at him, but instead reached into her satchel and pulled out the oatcakes Hoggle had carefully wrapped and packed for their breakfast. She handed half to Jareth without comment and then ate hers while she bundled up her gear.

By the time she finished repacking her supplies and stirring the ashes of their fire, Jareth had already moved into the center of a small clearing a few yards away. He stood in the center of the space with his head thrown back and his eyes closed against the glare of the new sun. Sarah watched him through the trees for a moment, wondering once again what possible motivation could have compelled him to come out here with her – to sleep in the dirt and risk his life helping her rescue someone who meant little to nothing to him.

Forcibly she pushed her concerns away and moved to join him in the clearing. She had too much else to worry about today to let her reservations about him cloud her mind. She had chosen to trust him. There was no turning back now, no second guessing and no doubts. Not until Didymus was home safe.

The fear she had refused to indulge through the dark hours of the night came roaring back unchecked in the warm light of day. This was really going to happen. She was really getting ready to go and attempt to rescue Didymus from an insane woman with magical abilities with no one but Jareth by her side. A chill no fire could touch went through her and she shivered.

"Are you ready?" he asked as she approached.

"No," she said, pleased when her voice came out strong and steady. "But what the hell."

He held out a hand and she reached for it, hesitating at the last second. "Why are you helping me?" she asked softly. She wasn't sure what made her ask it now. She expected a flippant answer if any at all and was surprised when he regarded her seriously for a long moment.

"I owe a debt," he said finally.

"To me?" she asked, puzzled.

"No." But he didn't offer further clarification and reached once more for her hand.

She wasn't sure why his answer satisfied her, it raised more questions than it answered, but somehow she felt that it was the only answer she needed. She took his hand, oddly buoyed by the solid pressure of his fingers as they closed around hers.

"I will take us through the Forbidden Forest to the edge of her castle grounds. We'll walk from there."

She nodded and took a deep breath.

He smiled at her, showing his teeth. "One, two…" and then the world dissolved around her.

From her first visit to the Labyrinth when Jareth had pulled her across the barrier between their worlds, to the trips she had taken by herself through the portal in her bedroom mirror, she had crossed into the Underground and back without incident more times than she could count. On every trip she had felt a slight dizziness, as if she had stood too quickly after sitting for too long. This time, it felt like she'd slammed into a wall.

Sarah came back to herself lying on her side in the snow, stunned from a fall she didn't remember taking. She groaned, sucking in a painful breath with oxygen-starved lungs. Everything hurt. With monumental effort she rolled slowly onto her back. She was too preoccupied by her own discomfort to be puzzled by the bare, frost-covered branches that cut across the sky above her or the thick blanket of snow that was slowly seeping into her inadequate clothing beneath her. Nothing seemed to be broken, but every inch of her body felt bruised. She turned her head to the side and saw Jareth lying prone a short distance away, unmoving.

"Oh God, no!" she whispered and pulled herself upright. She staggered to her feet and winced, but her legs held beneath her. She hobbled through drifts, stumbling over hidden obstacles buried in the snow and fell to her knees next to the still figure.

There was no blood, no obvious trauma that she could see, but her hands shook as she rolled him onto his back, praying frantically in wordless terror as she searched him for injuries. His face was pale even against the pure white of the snow, and for a moment she was sure, _certain_ that he was gone. And then there was a slight tremor of movement beneath her hands and she felt an almost sickening flood of relief.

"Thank God, thank God," she whispered over and over. She brushed the snow off of his face and touched his cheek gently, willing his eyes to open. "Come on, Jareth," she said, softly encouraging. "Come on. Wake up!"

His eyes snapped open, reflecting the pale grey sky overhead and then flickered to meet hers. "That was unexpected."

"You don't say," she said with a laugh, feeling mildly giddy from the combination of pain, fear and relief. "Are you alright?"

"I'll be better when you're no longer digging your elbows into my chest," he said, sounding pained.

"Oh! Sorry!" She sat back and gave him room to lever himself into a sitting position. "What the hell was that?" she asked. "And for that matter, where the hell _are_ we?" She looked around, finally taking stock of their surroundings now that the first flush of panic had begun to ebb. "Is this _snow_? Are we even still in the Underground?"

"In reverse order," he began, climbing slowly to his feet, "yes, yes, exactly where I expected us to be and I cannot be certain, but I can hazard an educated guess."

She gave him a disbelieving look. "Wow. It's amazing. It's like you're on smartass auto-pilot. Can't you maybe, just this once, give me a straight damn answer and tell me how the hell we ended up in fucking Narnia?" She punctuated her question by hurling a handful of snow in his direction, suddenly annoyed that she'd bothered being worried about him.

"We are on the outskirts of Elsbeth's grounds," he said, brushing snow from his cloak with emphasis. "_Exactly where I expected us to be_."

"Did you expect this?" she asked a little shrilly, gesturing at their frozen environment. "It was like seventy-five degrees three minutes ago!"

Jareth didn't reply immediately. He turned in a brief circle, absorbed in his examination of the landscape, his brow creased in contemplation.

They were in a shallow wooded valley that sloped up and away from them into a dense copse of leafless trees and tangled underbrush. It was a wild wood, overgrown and untended, but subdued by the thick blanket of snow. The air was heavy, but unnaturally silent. There were no animal sounds, no soughing of wind, no rusting of leaves or distant bird calls, nothing but the crunch of Jareth's boots in the snow and Sarah's own rapid breathing.

"Elsbeth loves the snow," he said, as if such a declaration should have cleared something up for her. "But she could not have…" He shook his head. "Rather, she wasn't capable of this level of control, this _range_ when I saw her last. But clearly…"

"She did this with magic?" She said. "But why? What's the point?"

"There doesn't need to be a point," he said. "She _can_ do it, so why not?" He frowned and then snapped his head around, tilted as if listening.

"What are you…?"

"Shhh!" he hissed.

And then she heard it. Distantly, a rhythmic, percussive sound carried through the trees. She looked wide-eyed at Jareth and saw understanding cross his features. "Damn," he said softly. "Her power has grown." He looked around the valley again, this time almost wistfully. His eyes came to rest on Sarah, beginning to shiver in the cold she had not anticipated or prepared for. "She warded the grounds," he said, finally, in explanation. "And we hit the barrier created by the ward. We could have walked through it without even realizing, but since we were using magic, it stopped us cold." He turned in the direction of the noises, growing perceptibly closer. "I had thought to evade her notice until we arrived at the castle gates…but she knows we're here."

The distant, reverberating sounds had gotten louder and Sarah realized suddenly, unpleasantly, that what she was hearing was at least two _sets_ of sounds, very like the rhythmic cadence of marching feet. "Footsteps," she said, nearly choking on the word.

He nodded his head grimly. "I'm afraid so. Her guards are designed to respond to intruders automatically. I imagine that's how Didymus got caught." His eyes flicked back to her. "And how we're going to get caught too."

"Designed?" she said, bewildered. She looked up to the ridge at the top of the valley. The measured thud of unseen feet had grown closer and was joined now by the crashing of underbrush and the crack of snapping branches that echoed like gunshots in the valley. Some of the distant treetops were beginning to sway; marking the impossibly rapid passage of something large. "Jareth, what the hell is that?"

"Elsbeth's guards," he replied just as the tree line above them exploded. Two massive _things_ barreled down the ridge toward them, splintering trees and flattening brush effortlessly in their single-minded charge.

Sarah opened her mouth, but the scream stuck in her throat.

She had never seen anything like these creatures. Nothing in her experience or imagination could have conceived of such horrific abominations as the two enormous, hulking nightmares that were hurtling towards her at a speed that should have been impossible given their size. They were covered in mottled tan and black fur with stumpy ill-defined legs that churned across the landscape in an awkward, lumbering gait that belied their speed. At easily three times her own height, they were broad across the shoulders and heavy, each pounding step they took sent shocks through the valley that Sarah could feel through the soles of her boots.

Terrifying as they were in form, it was the faces that had frozen her into place as though rooted to the spot.

They didn't have any.

Their heads, if the amorphous lump on top of their torsos could be termed as such, sat low between their shoulders with nothing like the rigid contours of a skull. There were no facial features – no hole or slit or fold or irregularity of surface of any kind that could indicate a nose or mouth or eyes. Blindly, deafly, mutely, they plummeted down the slope and into the valley, thundering relentlessly onward.

"Jesus, God," Sarah said hoarsely and realized she was clutching Jareth's arm hard enough to leave bruises. She wanted to run, wanted to at least _try_ to escape the grotesque figures bearing down on them even as she acknowledged the futility. Her mind screamed at her to run, to do _something_ to save herself. But there was nothing to be done.

"Get behind me." Jareth's voice was imperious and commanding, the tone of a man accustomed to obedience. There was no sign in his bearing of the shock and terror that ran through her veins like ice water. It was a relief to let him step in front of her.

He stood with his cloak thrown back and his legs spread, boots digging into the snow, braced as if for impact. As the creatures hit level ground and started across the valley floor, he brought his hands up in a forceful gesture that Sarah felt sure should have stopped the beasts in their tracks, if not annihilated them altogether.

Expectation made the moment seem to hang breathlessly in time. It took a beat longer than it should have for Sarah to realize nothing had happened and one more for it to sink in that nothing was going to. It hadn't worked.

"No!" gasped Jareth, that one word filled with such stark disbelief that Sarah wanted to reach out to him even as the beasts were upon them.

The thick arms of the guard closed around her waist and yanked her off her feet, barely changing its stride as it hauled her in. A panicked scream tore from her throat as she fought backwards, cut off abruptly as her head cracked against a passing tree and darkness took her.

She regained consciousness some time later still wrapped in the massive arms of the guard with no concept of how much time may have passed, but they were still moving rapidly through the wood. She could see little, buried in the heavy fur of the creature as she was, but she could still hear the reverberating thud of solid footfalls and the snap of branches and foliage as they plowed through the trees. She realized suddenly that her hearing was completely unimpeded by any sounds whatsoever coming from her captor. There was no huff of heavy breathing or grunt of pain as yet another pole-sized tree snapped off on violent impact. This _thing_, whatever it was, did not breath.

As strange and horrifying as everything had been up to this point, _this_ was the thing that sent her over the edge. Panic sang through her body, and she struggled desperately to escape the iron grip of the creature that held her. It was useless, of course. She would have had as much effect beating her hands against a boulder, but she couldn't _not_ fight. She screamed her frustration, gasping for breath as tears streamed down her cheeks and into the mottled fur under her cheek.

Distantly, through the fog of her terror, she heard her name being called. It might have come from another world altogether. It was the forceful tone of the voice that finally worked its way into her consciousness and pulled her back to the present.

"Sarah! Damnation girl, answer me! Sarah!"

She couldn't see him, but she could tell that he was close and that fact alone bolstered her courage. She was even able to manage mild amusement that it should be his presence that evoked a sufficient sense of normalcy to be reassuring. She took a few shuddering breaths and called out in reply. "I'm here! I'm okay!"

The steady pounding of the creature's footsteps slowed and Sarah felt rather than saw the change as they plunged from the bright, cold air of the outdoors into the musty, closed-in atmosphere of neglected habitation. Before the realization that they had reached the castle of the Borderlands Queen had fully sunk in, Sarah found herself dumped unceremoniously in a heap on the cold, cobbled floor.

They were in a cavernous, stone-walled anteroom that looked exactly like what the entrance to an ancient castle _should_ look like if one were touring its ruins. Two wide marble staircases with open balustrades curved up to a deep-set terrace on the next level. There was no apparent light source, but the high windows above them spilled wan sunlight across the landing so that the stairs shone yellow as aged bone against the shadows. Corridors led off of the main entryway like the spokes of a wagon wheel and disappeared off into the gloomy depths of the castle. At one time the cold cobbled floors had been thoughtfully lined with plush, intricately patterned runners, but those had been worn down to threads through heavy usage and bleached by the passage of time. It must have been a breathtaking sight at one time, but now it was little more than a dank ruin with rotted tapestries on the walls and gilded furnishings that glowed only faintly through layers of tarnish and grime.

Sarah rolled to her knees and wondered if she was going to live long enough to appreciate the impressive bruises she was collecting. A few yards away, Jareth was climbing slowly to his feet looking reassuringly pissed off. He glanced briefly in her direction, but his attention was almost immediately caught by some movement at the top of the stairs. Feeling sick with apprehension, Sarah followed his eyes upwards to the gallery above.

A sweet voice rang out in the dark. "Jareth, you have come at last to visit me!"

The queen of the Borderlands padded silently to the balcony at the top of the stairs on bare and dirty feet with two more of her silent hulking guardians trailing after her like a pair of docile lapdogs. She wore a wretched gown, which may have once been white, but now hung in ruined tatters around her filthy legs. A golden circlet set with colorful stones rested atop the tangled black nest of her hair and glinted in the dim light as she descended the stairs with a light, skipping step. She was slim and dainty with delicate, nearly elfin features. 'Child-like' wasn't the word for it, she _was_ a child, at least in form. Full, rosy cheeks and a sweetly upturned nose showed the promising lines of a future beauty that she would never attain. She was nothing like the imposing figure Sarah had been anticipating, the top of her head would barely have reached Sarah's shoulder had she been standing close enough for comparison. Sarah was absurdly thankful that she was not.

"I have, Elsbeth," Jareth replied. His voice echoed gravely in the cavernous room. Sarah gave him a searching look. His face was expressionless, carefully blank as he watched the girl traipse down the curving stone staircase.

The diminutive Elsbeth, however, fairly glowed with fervor. Her eyes were wide and overly bright in the dim light that filtered into the hall through the grimy windows. "You have brought me a gift?" she asked, breathily, turning her disconcerting gaze on Sarah.

Sarah repressed a shudder and tried to resist the urge to hide behind Jareth.

"Rather the opposite, I'm afraid," he said, conversationally. He strolled a few steps, stopping as if to admire a distorted, but vaguely human-looking statue that dominated the entryway. It didn't pass Sarah's notice that his sudden interest in psychotic artwork placed him directly in between her and the certifiably insane infant across the room.

"Who is she?" Elsbeth asked. She cocked her head to the side, regarding Sarah with unblinking curiosity.

"My name is Sarah." She wasn't going to stand there and let the tiny psychopath pretend she wasn't in the room. Jareth scowled at her and she pointedly ignored him.

"Oh! But you are human?" The girl twirled in a happy little circle as if unable to contain her excitement. "But it has been ages since I've seen another human!" She strode forward, brushing past Jareth without a glance, and seized Sarah's hand with an unexpectedly firm grasp. "We shall have so much to talk about!"

Her small hands felt unpleasantly warm, nearly feverish, and made Sarah's skin crawl.

"We're, uh, looking for our friend," she managed. She moved her body as far away from her trapped hand as she could without attempting to pull it away. She didn't actively try to free her hand, mostly out of the fear that she wouldn't be able to. At least this way she could _pretend_ that she wasn't being held hostage by a four foot tall child.

"A retainer of mine," Jareth added. He approached with both hands extended in greeting and, as propriety demand, Elsbeth dropped her iron clad grip on Sarah's hand to accept Jareth's formal greeting with obvious pleasure. He took both of her hands in his and kissed them graciously and then repeated the exercise on each of her dirt-smudged cheeks. "I hate to be a bother Elsbeth, but Didymus is forever getting himself into some little scrape or another. I had heard that he was seen in your wood and had hoped that he might have found his way here somehow." He stepped back, very decidedly placing himself as a barrier between her and Sarah.

"Did-he-mas?" The girl's eyes narrowed slightly, giving her a sweetly baffled expression and then she lit up, animation charging through her like an electric current. Even her pallid cheeks flushed pink in enthusiasm. "Oh yes! The puppy!" And then almost immediately she sobered, her bow-like lips pursed outward into a dramatic pout. "He was very naughty. He should not have been here."

Sarah felt the blood drain from her face. "Wha- What happened to him? Where is he?"

The girl was frenzied again, hopping in place like a maniacal rabbit. "Oh! Oh! Can we play a game? I know lots of good games!"

"_Didymus_, Elsbeth," Jareth said lightly stressing the name. "We have come for Didymus."

The dim entryway flared suddenly into light. Hundreds of candles of every shape and size burst into radiant flame from every horizontal surface. A massive chandelier that had hung lost in the empty darkness above them was a small incandescent sun that cast a ring of shadows around their feet.

Sarah winced against the sudden burst of light.

"You have grown more powerful," Jareth commented. His voice was mild, but his face was pinched and pale, the yellow candlelight leaving dark hollows beneath his eyes.

She nodded dreamily without looking at him. "I have had time to practice." She did meet his eyes then, her expression serious. "You'll never get good at anything unless you practice, you know." She executed an awkward pirouette, humming lightly to herself. "How long has it been, my Jareth? How many hundreds of years since we last spoke? I seem to have lost my watch so I haven't the time." She seemed to be distracted by something across the room and slowly started to wander away.

Soundlessly, her huge guards shambled behind her.

"Wait!" Sarah choked. "Please! My friend, is he okay? Is he here?"

Elsbeth gave her a puzzled look. "Who? No one is here." She gestured at their empty, sepulchral surroundings. "It is only me and my bears here today. We have no guests."

"We're looking for Sir Didymus," Jareth repeated gently. "We know he is here."

The little girl's expression went from calm puzzlement to red-faced fury in an instant. "No, no, no!" She stamped her bare feet soundlessly on the stone floor, her voice rising to a shriek. "He was _naughty!_ He should not have been here! _You should not be here! This is my kingdom! I am the queen! You have no power here, Jareth! Kneel! I want you both to Kneel!_"

Unseen force pressed down on Sarah until she collapsed to her knees. She gasped against the pain that pushed her down, bowing her head until it was nearly on the floor. Out of the corner of her watering eyes she saw Jareth brought down in a similar fashion.

"Take them!" she screamed to the guards. "Take them to the dungeons! Put them in a cell and lock the door! Return to me when you are done."

The crushing pressure disappeared and Sarah found herself hefted like a rag doll once more. She struggled in the creature's grasp, trying at the very least to see something of her surroundings, but she quickly lost all sense of direction as she was jogged down one lightless passage after another. Twists and turns and bone-rattling flights of steps ran together into one endless blur until she was almost looking forward to whatever was on the other end. And then she was once again dropped gracelessly onto the floor, this time into a pile of musty smelling straw. She had barely managed to figure out which way was up when a heavy set of iron doors slammed shut with a resounding boom, inches in front of her face.

She scrabbled belatedly backwards and coughed against the cloud of dust and straw stirred up by her movements. A series of tiny slit windows up near the ceiling let in enough light to see by, but there was little worth seeing. The cell was surrounded on three sides by narrowly spaced iron bars and on the fourth by stone, presumably part of the outer wall of the castle itself. None of the other cells seemed to be occupied. Many of the iron doors hung open and the air smelled stale with disuse. She tried to wrap her brain around the realization that she was now locked in an actual _dungeon_ and then decided to deal with it later.

There was a rustling sound from the dim corner of her cell and fear leapt up her throat. "Jareth?" she croaked, with desperate hope.

"Yes," he said, wheezing a bit himself. "It's me."

"Oh thank God. The intensity of the relief that coursed through her was absurd in contrast with the dire nature of their situation, but she was unspeakably grateful that they had ended up in the same cell. She crawled in his direction and groped until she found his hand and clasped it in both of hers like a lifeline. He seemed startled for a moment, but then closed his fingers firmly around hers. His grip was reassuringly steady.

"Are you okay?" he asked. "Are you hurt?"

"No, I don't think so. I'm going to be covered in bruises, but I'm alright. What about you? Did they drop you like a sack of potatoes too?"

He chuckled, a warm rumble that she felt through their joined hands. It was an oddly comforting sound. "Yes, but nothing seems permanently damaged. Elsbeth's guards are not well known for their tender care."

"What the hell _are_ those things, Jareth? I've never seen anything like them." She shuddered at the memory of the grotesque figures.

"I would imagine not," he said. "They're golems."

"Gollums?" she said. "Like the thing in _The Hobbit_?"

"And you an English teacher too," he chided softly, but with a slight smile. "A golem is a kind of artificial life, creatures formed and controlled by magic. They're usually made of earth – I suspect Elsbeth's are clay beneath all that fur. At least that used to be her preferred medium. Magic is not capable of creating life or maintaining it, but golems are not really 'alive' in the strictest sense of the word. They are inorganic matter animated and sustained through the magical will of their creator."

"She…_made_ them?"

He nodded. "Yes. She was always very good at that particular kind of magic. She seemed to prefer the company of her creations to that of the goblins, which I suppose I can understand to a certain extent. Golems are placid and silent creatures, whereas the goblins are anything but. She came here from a situation of such violent chaos; the calm simplicity of the golem's presence must have seemed a soothing alternative."

"Calm and soothing are not the first adjectives that come to mind when I think of those things," Sarah said wryly.

"They are though, at least as they are created. She made them big and they are very strong physically, but not at all intelligent. They will do exactly as they are commanded and absolutely nothing more or less. They have no capacity to think or choose and are painfully literal. She must have a care how she speaks to them."

Sarah snorted. "Well that's a bit terrifying." And then she had a thought. "Is that why people go missing? She tells her guards to 'throw them in the dungeon' and they actually _throw_ them in the dungeon?"

"Some, no doubt. The golems are really nothing more than tools and any tool wielded improperly can yield disastrous results." Jareth lifted his eyes to meet hers and pursed his lips as if he were debating whether or not to continue. "Others however…" he went on slowly, almost grudgingly, "well, she is _curious_."

"Curious? Curious like how?" Sarah asked carefully. Reluctance was etched into every line of his body and he seemed weighted down by a sadness she was sure he had never given free reign before now. He had decided to let her in, but it meant delving into memories he preferred buried deep and forgotten.

"It's the reason she was banished, why I finally gave up on her." He had gently pulled his hand from her grasp and twisted his bare fingers into a ratty, moth-eaten blanket so tightly that his knuckles turned white. "I distanced myself from her after a time. Once it became clear that her madness was absolute and I was sure her mind was unreachable, I found myself making excuses, finding reasons to stay away for days and weeks, months even." He closed his eyes, his handsome face twisted in remembered grief. "I am ashamed of it now, horrified by the neglect I perpetrated upon a troubled girl who needed the guidance and care I could have…_should_ have given her. I thought I had done what I could, what was expected of me, but I _resented_ her for her helplessness, for feeling trapped by an obligation of my own devising."

His eyes opened, but he was no longer seeing Sarah or the filthy dungeon. She doubted he even remembered that he was speaking to her.

"I did not avoid her absolutely. When I was home, which had, admittedly, become an infrequent occurrence; I visited her before bed as a matter of course. I would check with her nurse and then see her for a few minutes. She spoke little sense and her moods were often mercurial and violent. It was a visit I little relished, but I looked at as my duty and her due. On that last night, I had not been gone so very long – a week or two perhaps and I arrived home very late. I considered skipping my visit, I never bothered to advise anyone of my arrival so she would not have been expecting me in any case, but instead I left my chambers and made my way to the wing of the castle that I had given her for her own. Her nurse was not in her rooms, and I remember thinking that boded poorly as it meant Elsbeth was likely being more of a handful than usual."

He swallowed convulsively. "I knew the moment I entered her chamber. The smell of death was overwhelming. She greeted me pleasantly, genteelly even, though she was covered from head to toe in blood and gore. She was calm, I would even go so far as to say _happy_. She had no regret, no horror at what she had done. She no longer had the capacity for those things. When I asked her, when I cried 'what have you done?!' she shrugged and said they were just playing." He gave a humorless chuckle. "She couldn't even understand why I was angry. She was lost…just lost."

He shuddered, but went on resolutely. "There were three of them. Two were castle guards on night duty. The other was the nurse I had assigned to take care of her when she first came to live at the castle. Pheera had been by her side, caring for her non-stop, every day for hundreds of years. She had dressed her, played with her, fed her…loved her." He stopped and turned his face away, pressing it hard against the bars of their cage. When he went on his voice was choked. "She tore them apart; eviscerated them one at a time. There were pieces _everywhere_. Her chamber was painted with blood." He turned back, his face filled with anguish, his eyes wet. "I banished her then. Brought her here to the edge of the world, put her in this castle and gave her a kingdom to play with. Then I put up the forest as a barrier and a warning and forbade that anyone should come this far. I tried to visit occasionally at first, brought her gifts, tried to reach her in some way, but there seemed nothing left of her mind and I finally realized that my presence only agitated her and so I stopped altogether." He trailed off into silence and then added quietly, "It has been many lifetimes since I last saw her."

For a long time they sat in silence. Jareth seemed lost in his own thoughts, his gaze distant and unfocused. Sarah was unsure of how she should feel. Pity, horror, sadness and fear all warred for dominance, but in the end she just went with her first inclination and even surprised herself.

She turned to him and put her arms around his slumped shoulders, resting her cheek against his back. He stiffened under her embrace, but didn't pull away. "You did your best," she said softly. "You did all you could for her. Remember how you told me that Didymus getting taken wasn't my fault? Well it isn't yours either. _She_ isn't your fault. Her parents are responsible for what happened to her, not you. You did more than you had to, more than anyone, in my world or yours, would have expected of you. You have to forgive yourself, Jareth."

Hesitantly, he reached up and covered her hand with one of his own and then brought it to his lips and gently kissed her palm. "Thank you, Sarah," he said softly. He turned abruptly then and cupped her face between his hands. "We _will_ get Didymus back," he said fiercely. "I always keep my promises and, given enough time, I correct my mistakes. This isn't over yet."

"Do you think he's here? Do you think he's still…"

"_Yes_," he said emphatically, his eyes narrowed as if daring her to disagree with him.

She smiled. "Thank you. I needed to hear that."

Jareth got up and prowled around the perimeter of their cell, pausing to try the bars periodically, but aged as they were, they held firm.

"You built her a castle and _put in a dungeon_." Sarah shook her head in disbelief. "Seriously, Jareth, what were you thinking?"

"It seemed like a good idea at the time," he said with a shrug.

"And now?"

"Not such a good idea."

"I should think not." Sarah crossed her arms and gave him a pointed look.

They slid easily back into the familiar pattern of their usual banter, but some of the ice had been chipped away and Sarah knew she'd never feel quite the same way about him again. It was more than just the shared danger and close quarters that had smoothed away the rough edges. He had proved himself capable of both pity and remorse, and perhaps most surprisingly of all, self-doubt. He'd hate to hear her say it, but he'd done a good job of humanizing himself today.

"Wait a second," she said, sitting up straight as a thought lodged in her mind. "How did you know I was an English teacher?"

A slow smiled spread across his face. "Shelves," he said, "_libraries_ full of things I'm not telling you."

She rolled her eyes and made a disgusted sound. "Okay fine, tell me this instead – why doesn't your magic work? That's what happened when Heckle and Jeckle picked us up in the valley, isn't it? Adult male magical dysfunction?"

It was his turn to give her a withering look. "It's the ward Elsbeth put up. It's suppressing my magic. As long as they're up, I am powerless here." He shook his head. "She's strong. Stronger than I ever would have imagined she could become."

"How does she even know how to do any of this stuff? You said she's human, right? I would have thought you'd have to be –" She gestured vaguely in his direction. "Whatever you are."

"I taught her," he said from between his teeth. "I thought it would do her some good to have a purpose, to learn a skill few ever have the chance to master. She had been powerless her whole life. I wanted her to know what it was like to have control over her world."

Sarah looked up at the row of icicles that studded the tiny window overhead. "Well, she's certainly figured that part out."

"Still think I should forgive myself?" he asked wryly.

"Yes," she said, stressing the word. "Why should you keep punishing yourself for trying to help? Your intentions were good."

He quirked an eyebrow at her. "And what is it they say is paved with those?"

She waved a dismissive hand. "It makes for a good adage, but the road to hell is paved with all kinds of things. Showing sympathy for a lonely, abused little girl doesn't even rate." She leaned back against the rough stone wall and crossed her legs in front of her, shivering slightly against the frigid air coming from the narrow opening above them. She doubted it was cold enough in the dungeon to actually freeze to death yet, but once the sun went down it was anybody's guess. Idly she wondered if they were going to end up starving to death or if exposure would get them first and then shook herself irritably, hating the ease with which her thoughts wandered into such morbid territory.

Jareth gave her a questioning look, which she ignored. She didn't much want to discuss her fears or misgivings with him, mostly because the thing she feared the most was that he would agree with her and tell her he had been mistaken and that it really was hopeless after all. They could really only afford for one of them to hit rock bottom at a time.

Wordlessly, Jareth crossed the cell and sat down on the ledge next to her. Using his index finger he drew a set of parallel lines in the dirt and then drew another perpendicular set directly on top and sat back, looking at her expectantly.

She gave him a puzzled look and he rolled his eyes, exasperated. He reached out and drew an 'x' in the middle square of the grid he had drawn.

She laughed out loud. "This day has been _so_ bizarre," she said but went ahead and placed an 'o' in a corner square.

For the next hour, to stave off both mind-numbing boredom and soul-crushing fear, she and the king of the goblins engaged in a cut-throat, no-holds-barred tic-tac-toe tournament for the ages.

Eventually, they began to talk. They spoke mostly of inconsequential things – Sarah's tenth grade English students, the goblin's annual chicken races, Toby's first year of high school, and the castle gardens where Jareth went to escape the chaos of the castle. They stayed clear of any reference to their current situation, to Elsbeth or even Didymus.

Even after they had abandoned their game, they kept on talking. As the afternoon passed away, they discussed books they had both read, music that touched their souls and the best way to get roses to grow in shade. Sarah described her first, and most decidedly _last_, attempt at college theater and Jareth laughed appreciatively in all the right places. He regaled her with endless stories about the antics of the goblins that left her nearly breathless with laughter.

Gradually the sun began to sink below the level of the windows and the yellow light that illuminated their cell turned slowly orange and then a dull, rusty red. Mealtimes came and went and the rumbling of their bellies, much like the passing of the time, went unacknowledged by either of them. Eventually, the sun sank below the level of the horizon and night set in. The dungeon was plunged into complete darkness and plummeting temperatures, and still they talked.

Without discussing it, they had ended up side by side back on the ledge, their hands intertwined once more. Sarah thought how very odd it was that this should seem so normal to her now. She couldn't decide if the camaraderie of a single day could bring her to this level of comfort or if she was merely unable to distinguish the absurd from the usual anymore. His hand was warm in hers, a solid reminder that she was not alone in the darkness, that theirs was a burdened halved by the sharing of it. She was grateful for his presence by her side and for the gentle burr of his voice as he told her yet another story, this time about the wise men from the north who wore the most foolish hats…

"Jareth?" she interrupted sleepily, her voice barely a whisper.

"Yes, love?"

"Would you have come anyway, if I hadn't asked you? Would you have come after Didymus on your own?" It was an easy question to ask in the dark when she didn't have to look him in the eye.

It was an easier question to answer in the dark as well, though it was several long minutes before he did so.

"No," he said at last. His voice was tinged with sadness. "But I would have regretted it for the rest of my life." He leaned over and kissed the top of her head, an act that was also easier to perform in the darkness. "Rest your head, Sarah. We'll figure out what to do in the morning. I have no intention of dying in a dungeon I built myself. Sleep now."


	3. Chapter 3

The first thing Sarah thought when she awoke to the stream of pale light coming in through the windows was how surprising it was that she had slept at all, much less soundly and without dreams.

The second thing she thought was how strange it was that she was actually warm.

She blinked sleepily and then realized with some alarm that the source of the warmth was Jareth himself. She lay on her side near the edge of the stone shelf, wrapped snugly in his arms. Her back was flush with his chest and she could feel the gentle stirring of the hair on the back of her neck as he breathed.

She tensed to slide away from him and felt him waken immediately.

"Good morning," he said pleasantly.

The rumble of his voice, inches from her ear did funny things to her insides. She rolled forward, dropping off of the ledge and onto her feet. "What, are we spooning now?"

He gave her a deceptively innocent look. "You looked cold."

She gave him a dubious look.

"Okay, fine. _I_ was cold. Does that better suit your delicate sensibilities?"

He sat up and she was pleased to see that he didn't look nearly as put together and unruffled as he customarily did. It was a small thing, but nevertheless mildly vindicating to have evidence that he did in fact use his magic to keep himself looking so polished and put together all the time. "I don't have 'delicate sensibilities'," she said, irritably. "Let's just keep the cuddling to a minimum, okay?"

"Did someone wake up on the wrong side of the cold, hard, stone ledge this morning?"

Sarah scowled at him.

"Not a morning person, then? I'll file that bit of information away for future use." He stretched languidly, and permitted himself a small smile of victory when he caught her watching him. He winked and she hastily averted her eyes.

"Oh, please," she said with an unladylike snort. She crossed her arms over her chest and turned away, pointedly ignored him until he stood and shook out the heavy coat that had been draped over top of them as they slept.

"Wait, is that a coat? Where did you find a coat?"

He glanced over at the darkest corner of their cell and then back to her. "Try not to think about it too much," he suggested.

She looked over at the pile of straw and tried very hard not to think about what might be hidden underneath it. "Well, thank you for keeping me warm…I guess." She made a face.

Jareth chuckled. "I must admit, it's been some time since I've gotten such a lackluster reaction from a woman after spending the night with her."

He was smiling at her, joking, but Sarah looked up, suddenly serious. "How long has it been?"

His smile faded.

Her eyes flickered away from his and then back again. This time she held his gaze, waiting.

He paused for a moment before answering without a trace of humor, "A long, long time."

She flushed and said quickly, "Not that it matters or anything. It's none of my business. I was just…I don't know, wondering…for no reason." Feeling foolish and wondering what strange compulsion had made her ask such a revealing question, she moved quickly across the cell, putting as much space between them as she could manage, which wasn't nearly as much as she would have liked.

It wasn't like there was anything _to_ reveal, she told herself sternly. Simply getting through a full day without having the desire to throttle him was hardly grounds for advancing any sort of relationship. Then she shook her head, annoyed that the word 'relationship' had even flitted through her mind in conjunction with the Goblin King. Hadn't she spent the past dozen years hating and fearing him in equal measure? She was simply overwrought by the fact that they were stuck in a freaking _dungeon_ together for the foreseeable future, that was all.

Okay, yes, he had proved that there was more to him than she had previously suspected. He was in fact capable of something like normal human emotion, but was it enough to mitigate twelve long years of mutual antagonism? Did she_ want_ it to be enough?

She thought of the comfort his warm presence had given her during the whole ordeal of the day before, of tic-tac-toe and the countless stories he had told to keep her distracted, of his fingers wrapped tightly around hers in the dark. And then reluctantly, she also thought of waking in his arms, of being pressed protectively against his chest beneath a ratty coat he had scoured their cell to find for her.

She pressed her forehead into the bars and squeezed her eyes shut. What a perfectly horrible time to develop complicated feelings.

She wrapped her hands around the bars and squinted into the distance, straining to see signs of activity at the far end of the dungeon. "I don't suppose you got a room service menu when we checked in, did you?"

"I regret to say that I did not."

"Oh well, I guess that's okay. It's always so overpriced anyway." She turned around and leaned back against the bars. "Honestly, I think this place has gone downhill. They missed our wakeup call too."

He was leaning against the stone ledge with his arms crossed, watching her with a bemused smile on his face.

"What?" she asked, a bit self-consciously.

"I am merely marveling at your ability to distract yourself."

"Maybe I am distracting myself," she said, defensively. "But it sure beats the hell out of sitting here and wallowing in fear of what's to come. What good would that do me?"

"That's not all you're distracting yourself from," he chided with a flash of pointed teeth.

"I don't know what you're talking about," she replied loftily, knowing exactly what he was talking about.

He chuckled, a low and seductive sound. "Oh I think you do, Sarah. You just don't – "

The resounding crash of steel on stone made them both jump. It was the sound of the massive outer door being thrown carelessly into the wall behind it.

"Oh God." Sarah backed away from the door and made no protest when Jareth reached out and yanked her backwards, putting himself between her and the approaching racket. They both knew it was a futile gesture. If the guards were there to take them, there was nothing either of them could do to prevent it, though she appreciated the attempt nonetheless.

It was Elsbeth who came traipsing into view a few moments later, however, and Sarah was suddenly _very_ grateful for Jareth's chivalrous streak.

The Queen of the Borderlands meandered aimlessly down the corridor, humming softly to herself. She was still dirty, barefoot and wearing the same tattered and stained gown as before, but the jewel-studded tiara was missing today. She seemed in no hurry, stopping from time to time to swing back and forth on the iron bars and adding a little skip to her stride every few steps, presumably in time with whatever tune was playing in her head.

"Oh!" she said when she spied them in the back of the cell, seeming genuinely surprised to find them there. "My Jareth!" she exclaimed happily, and then looked around the dungeon, with a puzzled expression. "You have chosen your accommodations most peculiarly."

"We seem to have lost our way, Elsbeth," Jareth said smoothly. "We would be most appreciative if you could assist us."

"I am a good helper," she said seriously and then with a negligent flick of her wrist, she wrenched the cell door off of its hinges and threw it across the room without ever so much as laying a hand on it. "Now you must come and play!" she cried. "I simply love new toys!" She pranced back up the corridor on her tiptoes, twirling with her arms raised over her head and giggling when she lost her balance and staggered.

Sarah followed Jareth with her hand fisted in the back of his shirt, unwilling to lose physical contact as they made their way up and out of the dark, cold prison that she hoped with all her heart she would never see again.

Her joy at reaching the upper level faded once she'd had a chance to examine her new surroundings and suddenly the dungeon cell didn't seem like such a bad alternative. The room they entered was a wreck, all crumbling walls, scattered debris and splintered wood that might once have been castle furnishings. There was an occasional flash of metallic silver as the indistinct light glinted faintly on a strange assortment of unidentifiable tools that were strewn carelessly around the room. Most worrying of all, however, were the dark stains that covered the stone floor in large, dark splotches. There were more of them than Sarah could count easily in the dim light and many were overlapping, making it even harder to discern, but she thought dozens at least. No effort had ever been made to clean up the foulness in the room and eventually, despite her best efforts, she was unable to avoid stepping in one of the spots. She shuddered as her shoe stuck slightly in the congealed mess and had to repress the urge to be sick. The stench was suffocating. She had to fight hard to keep from thinking about what kinds of atrocities must happen here.

She clutched Jareth's shirt tighter and then greedily seized the hand he surreptitiously offered to her behind his back. The solid feel of his fingers tightened around hers was both a lifeline and a tether, keeping her from completely losing her mind.

She was unable to completely suppress the faint sob of relief when Elsbeth continued on through the room without stopping and on into the next corridor. Jareth squeezed her hand in reassurance.

Any hopes either of them may have held of making a run for it once they were out of the dungeon were dashed when they came to the end of their journey and Elsbeth skipped ahead of them into the room. A soundless phalanx of her guards closed in behind them, cutting off the only exit as efficiently as if she had put up a wall.

They were in a fairly normal sitting room, though large. The furnishings were heavy and antiquated, all burgundys and golds in repeating patterns on rich fabrics with raggedy tassels hanging off of just about everything. The warm, yellow light that made the room shimmer came from dozens of candles spread across every surface.

Sarah swallowed, but reluctantly let go of Jareth's hand before Elsbeth noticed. She somehow sensed that the girl would not approve of such unsanctioned contact. She glanced up at Jareth's face. It was stony and pale and he was watching Elsbeth with the same cautious wariness she felt, waiting to see what her mood would bring.

"You are the human," Elsbeth said conversationally after she had climbed up on one of the large sofas and made herself comfortable. She sat with her legs crossed and smoothed her hands over her tattered skirt as though it were some fine, delicately woven fabric rather than soiled rags.

With a quick glance at Jareth, Sarah nodded. "Yes, I am."

"See, I remembered!" Elsbeth said musically. "I have not had another human to play with in a very long time." She blinked slowly and gave a disconcertingly vacant smile. "Do you like to play games?"

"Um…I guess. I haven't really played any in a long time."

"Neither have I!" she crowed, her eyes wide as if she had just discovered something they had in common by amazing coincidence. And then she stopped and looked oddly thoughtful, her head tilted dramatically to the side. "No, perhaps that is not true. I think I may have played with someone this month…or maybe it was next week?" She shrugged and smiled again, that same empty up-tilting of her lips that did not come close to her eyes. "It matters not. I know they could not have been human. I am the only human here." Her eyes slid over Sarah in a calculating manner. "Or I _was_. Only now there is you."

Sarah froze under the girl's scrutiny, not knowing what to say that wouldn't spark another dangerous temper tantrum.

"Did you bring her here, my Jareth?" she asked without moving her gaze from Sarah. "Were the people bad to her too?"

"No, Elsbeth," he said shortly without elaborating. His lips were pinched and pale. He was worried, Sarah realized with an unpleasant jolt. Her own fear ratcheted up a few notches.

"Do you have bad people?" Elsbeth asked. "Is that why you came here?"

"Um…no," Sarah managed. "I came to visit my friends."

"You have friends?" Elsbeth's expression lit with interest.

"Some," she said evasively, already wishing she hadn't mentioned them.

"I have no friends but my bears," Elsbeth sighed, an exaggerated, theatrical gesture. "And sometimes my Jareth, when he comes to visit me, but that is not often and even then, he _never _wants to play with me. Isn't that terrible?"

"Um…"

"Oh, I know, I know!" Elsbeth was on her knees bouncing on the cushions. "_You_ can be my friend too!" She fell over on her side, in raptures. "We shall have ever so much fun! Wouldn't you like that? Wouldn't you like to be my friend? Wouldn't you like to play?" She sobered abruptly and levered herself into a sitting position, looking at Sarah impatiently. "Well, would you?"

"I…I don't know. I…" She looked at Jareth, panicked.

Jareth shot to his feet. "Elsbeth – " he began.

"No!" she snarled. The flames of the candles in their holders flared under her agitation. "I am not _speaking _to you right now! You hush or I'll make my bears hurt you!"

"No!" Sarah cried, alarmed. She hurried on, trying to maintain some semblance of calm, "No, that's not necessary, Elsbeth. Of course, I'll be friends with you." She gave the girl a wobbling smile that she hoped would pacify her.

It seemed to, briefly. She spun in a happy little circle and then fell back on the sofa, giggling, _almost_ sounding like a normal little girl for a moment. "Come on!" she said, sliding across the sofa and hopping to her feet. She grabbed Sarah's hand and started pulling on her. "Come with me! Let's go play now!"

She was surprisingly strong for her size, but would still have been no match for Sarah physically. Her magic gave her all the edge she needed, however.

"Get up!" she screamed and Sarah was thrown from her seat, landing on her knees with a sharp cry.

"Elsbeth, no!" Jareth shouted, lunging towards her.

The Borderlands Queen barely glanced at her former guardian and sent him flying into the opposite wall, pinning him against the stone several feet above the floor.

"I want to _play_!" Elsbeth screamed. "And you can't stop me! You never want me to have any fun! The Sarah is my friend and _I want to play with her!"_

Sarah scrambled backwards as the girl approached her, smiling again already. "Please," she choked through her tears, "Please don't." It didn't take much of a leap of imagination to surmise what kind of 'game' the girl must want to play. Jareth's story rang in her mind like a broken record, 'torn apart… eviscerated…'.

"Oh, but it will be such _fun_!" The girl's cheeks were flushed pink, her eyes bright with manic enthusiasm. "You will love my games! Some of my friends don't like them, but they are spoilsports and…do you want to know a secret?" She leaned her face down next to Sarah's ear, her breath warm and rapid against her cheek. "I make them play anyway," she whispered and then gave a high-pitched giggle that was like nails on a chalkboard.

"Ca-can't we p-play a different game?" Sarah tried, shaking. She attempted to rise, but it must have suited Elsbeth to keep her where she was. She couldn't move. "We c-could play hide and seek instead."

"But that is _exactly_ what I want to play!" Elsbeth exclaimed happily. "I want to find what is hidden!" She knelt in front of Sarah, lowering her head and contorting her body sideways so that she could brush her cheek against Sarah's in her downward facing position. "There is a heart tight locked away, and where it's gone I cannot say, but I will search for 'ere more until it wash upon my shore." Her voice was a childish sing-song that, anywhere else, under any other circumstances, would have seemed sweet and pure and innocent, but coming from behind those empty, soulless eyes, it sent chills down Sarah's spine.

"Elsbeth!" Jareth called, struggling ineffectually against the force that held him. Cold fingers of panic had wrapped themselves around his heart and squeezed until he thought it must explode from the pressure. He would have given his kingdom and everything in it right that second for one single chance to use his magic. "You must not do this!"

The girl stood and put her hands on her hips, bow shaped lips curled into a pout. "But, My Jareth, you _never _play with me and I want to play. The Sarah is my friend now. She will play with me." She patted the top of Sarah's head gently. "Come and see my playroom. I am very good at hide and seek." She giggled again. "I always win!"

The force keeping Sarah on her hands and knees vanished and she sagged to the floor, tears coursing down her cheeks. This couldn't be happening.

"Come, come now!" Elsbeth said irritably, tugging forcefully on Sarah's arm. She was half dragging her towards the towering wall of guards that shuffled slowly out of the way at their mistress's approach.

Sarah cried out, pulling desperately against the vice grip the girl had on her arm as she towed her relentlessly towards the corridor. She could think of nothing but the room with the stained floors, the memory of all of those strange instruments with wicked edges burned into her mind. The blood roared in her ear. "Please, no!"

Sarah's terrified cry cut through Jareth like a dagger. Mindlessly he fought the invisible bands that held him firm. He was desperate to reach her, to _save_ her. 'What are you willing to do?' came the voice from inside him. 'How far are you willing to go to save The Girl?' He knew the answer at once. It came without effort and without thought. All the way. He would do whatever it took to save her even if it meant… "Elsbeth!" he called out, "Let her go! Let her go and I will come and play with you instead!"

Elsbeth stopped and turned slowly, tilting her head to the side in query. "You want to play with me? Truly? You would come and play with me at last?"

"Yes," he said, his voice cracking with emotion. He gazed down at Sarah's pale, shocked face, and felt a certainty like he had never known before. "Yes, of course, but you must first promise that you will let her go. We cannot play properly until she is gone. It's time for Sarah to go home now."

Elsbeth looked puzzled, regarding the desperate expression on his face with curiosity, but she let him slide slowly down the face of the wall until he was standing on his own power once again. "We could all play together," she suggested hopefully. "The Sarah could go home after we play?"

"No," Jareth said, his tone firm despite the silent tears that tracked down his pale cheeks. "She has to go home _now_. You must allow her to gather her things and go and then… then we can play."

Elsbeth let go of Sarah's arm without a glance, leaving her on her knees in the middle of the room.

"What are you doing?" Sarah hissed.

He crossed the room in two strides and pulled her up off the floor and into his arms. "You would prefer I let her take you instead?" he whispered fiercely. "I must do this!" he brought his lips down on hers, kissing her hard and fast.

"No!" she cried as he released her. "I won't let you give your life for mine!"

"I'm not," he said with a mocking smile. "I'm giving it for Didymus."

"Please! Don't do it like this. Don't let her take you into that room! We'll figure out another way!"

"There is no other way," he said, determinedly. He took an uneven breath and let it out slowly. "I have lived a hundred lifetimes full of regrets, but I will not live to regret losing you when I could have prevented it. Allow me to bear responsibility for once in my wretched existence!"

He turned to face a perplexed Elsbeth, her elfin features screwed up in confusion. "Now you can let her go. I will stay with you, I promise. You may do with me whatever you wish. We will play whatever you like, but you must first let her find her friend – the puppy – and leave this place."

The enthusiasm was gone from Elsbeth's features and she stood looking at him indecisively. "Well, I am not certain…" she began.

"_Be certain_," he said. "I give myself to you freely in her stead." He turned his strange eyes on Sarah with apology there, but no regret, the ghost of a smile playing across his lips. "She is but a human, after all, and they are endemic. I am the only one of my kind. Surely we will have more fun together, you and I?"

Sarah choked through her tears, "Please, no…"

Elsbeth looked back and forth between them, doubt etched into the delicate lines of her face. "I don't understand why you are sad? We will have such fun."

"It's alright, Elsbeth," he said softly, his voice gentle. "It doesn't matter. Just… just let her go home now, alright, love?"

"Love?" Her wide, vacant eyes settled on him and for the first time, she seemed to look sad. "It is such a warm word. Does it feel like it sounds?" She went on without waiting for an answer. "I used to want one, but there was never enough to go around." She sighed. "I even tried to search for my own, you know. Pheera says you find love in a person's heart and I looked for it there, but I could never find it."

Sarah covered her mouth to muffle her cry of horror. Jareth closed his eyes briefly, his face creased with pain.

"Do you love her?"

He jerked in surprise at the question, so did Sarah. "Do I…"

"Love her?" Elsbeth repeated. "The human girl – the other one. Yes, that is what I want to know. Does my Jareth love The Sarah?"

"Yes," he said, roughly, but without hesitation. He was speaking to Elsbeth, but his eyes never left Sarah's.

"And you would let me look in your heart? So I can see it? I so want to see what love _looks_ like! Is it blue? I have long felt it must be blue. Is it a stone? Like a ruby or a diamond? It should be delicate like a jewel, but strong and lasting like a stone. Oh, I should so like to _see_ it!"

"Love doesn't work like that, Elsbeth," Jareth told her softly, sadly. "You cannot see it with your eyes, but yes, if that is what I must do to ensure that you will let Sarah and Didymus leave this place alive, then yes."

Elsbeth turned to Sarah inquiringly. "You have love for him too, I think." She said. "Do you not? Is there a love in your heart also?"

"Yes," Sarah choked out through her tears, knowing as she did that it was the truth she hadn't yet admitted to herself. "Yes! Please don't hurt him!"

Elsbeth nodded, thoughtful for a moment and then smiled. Her face was composed and the most beatifically serene expression softened her features until she looked like a child once more. "It doesn't mean what I seem to think it means," she said wistfully. She reached up and touched Jareth's face gently, tracing the path of his tears with one grubby finger. "I always wondered what it looked like, but I didn't guess that it's the tears that are diamonds." She reached for his hand and pressed it against her cheek. "Love looks like sacrifice, doesn't it, my Jareth?"

Jareth sank down to her level and gathered her, unresisting into his arms. "Sometimes it does, my girl. Sometimes it does."

She rested her head against his shoulder. "You never had the love for me."

"I did, Elsbeth," he said brokenly. "I did."

The girl shook her head. "No, not like the Sarah. Your windows don't glow for the cold girl." She sat up straight and looked at him. Her clear, vacant eyes were so close she nearly brushed his cheek with her eyelashes when she blinked. "You needed a queen, but I forgot to grow up." She butted the top of her head under his chin and sighed. "You were good to me, my Jareth, but spring must come and I don't know how to do it anymore." She wrapped her arms as far around him as they would go. "I'm sorry."

"It's alright, Elsbeth," he said again, softly. He returned her embrace and rocked her gently back and forth like a father would, comforting his child. He closed his eyes and let the tears fall freely into her tangled curls. Elsbeth's dark head was cradled against his chest, a contented smile on her delicate features.

Sarah's own chest felt tight as she watched him cradle the lost, broken little girl in his arms. She wiped warm tears away with the back of her hand and wondered at the human capacity for sadness. It seemed like a vessel that never filled no matter how much was poured into it, but add one single drop of true joy and the rest of it poured away like water down a drain.

She jerked in surprise as a drop of cold water landed on her cheek. Puzzled, she looked up, squinting against the sunlight that was streaming in through the upper windows and then flinched as another chilly drop landed squarely on her nose. She backpedaled out of the line of fire, searching the rafters for the source of the leak.

Finally, she spotted it. Far up, near the apex of the ancient vaulted ceiling, the cumulative effects of time and neglect had allowed a small crack to open up in the mortar between two of the heavy blackened beams that supported the roof. Snow melt dripped through the fissure and splashed almost soundlessly onto the stone floor far below.

This seemed somehow significant, but for the moment Sarah couldn't quite put her finger on why.

She moved to the window and looked out across the snow covered grounds, squinting hard against the glare of the sun's rays reflecting back off of the pristine surface. She had to work the rusty latch for a moment, but it finally gave way and the window swung out, away from its casing. A chilly, but fresh draft ruffled the loose hairs around her cheeks and she took a deep breath of the clean, sweet-smelling air. She stood at the open window with her hands braced on the casing, enjoying the faint breeze, her eyes closed in appreciation. Eventually she became aware of a faint pattering sound coming from outside and leaned out, curious.

A row of shining icicles hung from the corner eaves like a set of glass stalactites, their glittering points dripping a steady tempo onto the ground below the window.

"It's melting," she said softly. She turned to Jareth, as he sat, still gently rocking Elsbeth in his lap. "It's melting!" she said again, louder, her eyes wide with comprehension. The magic that had held winter in place was fading. Elsbeth had let go of the magical hold she had on the Borderlands. She had given Jareth's power back to him.

He nodded without opening his eyes and she realized he must have felt the shift when Elsbeth dropped the wards. He tightened his arms around the girl, hugging her to his chest fiercely for a long moment before he finally relaxed his grip and rested his cheek on the top of her head. "It's time, Elsbeth," he said finally, his voice thick.

"I rather thought it might be," she said calmly. She sat up and placed a hand on each of his cheeks regarding him steadily for a moment before she leaned forward and kissed him softly on the lips. Then she slid down from his lap and, giving him a quick backwards glance, she walked primly to the center of the room with her hands clasped in front of her, her expression composed and serene. Her eyes were clear and seemed almost focused. A small smile even played around the corners of her mouth as if she were thinking of something pleasant. At last she took a deep breath and closed her eyes. Tilting her chin upwards, she let the sunlight wash over her face. "It will be warm soon," she said.

"Yes," Jareth said. "It will be." He followed the girl into the pool of yellow light and looked down on her upturned face with sadness in his eyes. Sarah moved to stand next to him and held out her hand in invitation. He took it gratefully, thankful to feel her warm presence by his side while he did what he _should_ have done so many years ago and removed the rest of Elsbeth's humanity. He intertwined their fingers, squeezing lightly. When she returned the gentle pressure, he reached out with the other hand and placed it gently on top of Elsbeth's head. "Be well," he said softly and she was gone.

Sarah's heart clenched as she looked down at the befuddled little goblin that stood where Elsbeth had been seconds ago. She was a tiny little thing with sharp features, pointed little ears that bent forward at the tips and wide brown eyes. Elsbeth's had been a faint, nearly colorless, blue with nothing shining out from behind them. The windows to her soul had looked in on a vacant lot, long since abandoned and left to ruin. This new creature blinked up at her and she could see at once that there was a mind in there now, simple though it may be, that was capable of reason, of logic, of _joy_.

"Does she remember who she is?" she asked Jareth quietly. The goblin was darting quick looks around the room, taking it all in with short jerky movements of her head. She seemed puzzled, but not afraid.

"No," he said. His eyes were wet as he regarded the little creature, but he too was composed and serene, content with his decision. "She will to a certain extent, once the shock of the transformation has worn off, but even that will fade in time. And it will seem unimportant to her in any case." He knelt down to the goblin's level. "Hello," he said.

Her head tilted to the side as she regarded him uncertainly. "Hullo."

"Go and find Didymus," he said, without taking his eyes off the goblin. "I'll watch over her until you get back."

She didn't need to be asked twice and took off at a run, calling Didymus' name.

Just outside the great hall she skidded to an abrupt halt to avoid colliding with the motionless figure of one of the guards, sprawled where it had dropped when Elsbeth transformed. She skirted around it, leaving a liberal cushion between herself and the giant body. Dead or disabled or whatever it was, she still had no interest in getting a closer look. There were two more in the next chamber and she found another three as she worked her way through the rooms on the first level. The last one stood canted over to one side in a corner of what must have been Elsbeth's bedroom.

Sarah looked around the filthy apartment with its much abused furnishings and threadbare linens and felt an overwhelming sense of sadness for the little girl that had lived here. She may have been ancient in fact, but in essentials she had never really stopped being the damaged child that had been wished away all those years ago. There were toys in varying degrees of disrepair scattered around the room. Some were familiar, but most looked as though Elsbeth had created them out of random and incomplete memories from her time in the Aboveground.

The bed was tucked into a corner and seemed surprisingly small, like something that would be found in a regular-sized child's room. It was a very plain four-poster all done up in pink and white drapes and coverings. They were torn and dirty as most everything else in the room was, but here there seemed to have been at least some care taken to keep it neat and orderly. Sarah walked over and touched the covers with a tentative hand, thinking not only how simple it seemed in comparison to the rest of the castle's lavish furnishings, but also how much she would have desperately loved something just like it when she was ten years old.

In the middle of the bed she noticed a small, dark, oddly-shaped object, half covered by the pillow. Curious as to what could possibly have rated a spot next to Elsbeth as she slept; Sarah reached out and picked it up.

She dropped it immediately with a horrified cry and then fell to her knees on the floor next to the little pink and white bed. Tears splashed down her cheeks as her heart broke completely for the sad, lonely, little girl.

She reached out again with shaking hands and lifted the pathetic little toy that had probably held this special place of honor for hundreds, if not thousands, of years.

It was an ancient, ruined teddy bear with mottled black and tan fur. The stitching on the back of its head had burst long ago, the stuffing all but completely gone. The hollow shell of the bear's head had been rolled up and stuffed inside itself to prevent it from flopping around and letting out the rest of the stuffing. Sarah held it gingerly in her hands and looked over at the hulking creature slumped in the corner. But for the dramatic difference in their sizes, they were identical.

Elsbeth had created her guards to look like the one friend she had ever been able to depend on.

Sarah bowed her head and wept, mourning the wasted life of a little girl who had never stood a chance.

When she had cried herself out and her tears were all spent, she climbed to her feet and spoke softly into the empty room. "I'm sorry, Elsbeth," she said and turned to go, ready to move on with her search.

From a distant corner, she heard the faint sound of movement, unnaturally loud in the silent chamber and froze with her heart in her throat. "Who's there?"

"My lady?" came the unexpected, and most welcome, voice of Sir Didymus from out of the darkness. "Is that you?"

"Didymus?!" she cried, stumbling across the debris strewn floor to the dim corner of the room. It took her a moment to find him in the gloom. A small cage had been bolted into the stone wall and he crouched there, his paws stretched out through the bars. She clasped them in her own, pressing kisses across his knuckles and crying all over again. He was dirty and his eye patch was missing, but overall he appeared healthy and uninjured. She was relieved to see the remains of a dish of food pushed into one corner as well as a pitcher that had some water in it, or at least it did have until he knocked it over in his haste to reach her.

"Oh, my lady, it is wonderful to see you, truly it is, but you_ must_ go. She must not find you here!" He shook her hands off of his and started trying to push her away. "Please, my lady! You must go!"

She found that she was laughing and crying so hard it was difficult to speak. "It's okay, Didymus!" she managed finally. "It's okay! She's gone! It's okay!"

"Are you quite certain? Is it truly over, my lady? Is she…?" His furry eyebrows went up in dismay.

Sarah wrapped her hands around his paws again, pressing them gently. "She's alive. Jareth turned her into a goblin, but she's alive."

The news seemed to reassure Didymus and he relaxed, sagging against the bars. "It is as well, poor unhappy child."

She pressed her forehead against the bars and he did likewise, tickling her cheeks with his whiskers. "I'm so glad you're okay. I missed you."

"And I, you, my lady." He sat back abruptly. "Wait a moment, you say that _Jareth_ turned her into a… you mean to say he came _here_?"

"He's here now. He's waiting with Elsbeth…er, goblin Elsbeth that is, for me to find you." She sat up and started looking around the room, searching for the key.

"It's just over there, my lady," He pointed across the room to the large key hanging from a hook next to the cold fireplace. "My apologies for not making you aware of my presence sooner," he said as she picked her way over to retrieve the key. "I discovered that the queen would sometimes forget that I was here and I thought it best to avoid reminding her when I could help it."

"That was probably a wise idea." She worked the key into the lock and wrestled the heavy door open with Didymus' help.

Once free and standing upright, he flung himself into her arms and they collapsed to the floor in a tangle of arms and legs and fur. Sarah found herself positively giggling from the heady rush of relief. She hugged him fiercely and they talked endlessly over one another, _what _they were saying to each other not nearly as important as the fact that they could say it.

"She was not altogether cruel to me, you understand," he told her once they had calmed down enough to start searching for Didymus' belongings. "But her fits of temper were unpredictable at best and…well, let us just say, I was not alone in the cage when first I arrived." He looked back into the dim corner of the room and shook himself. "I think perhaps I shall not think on that again."

"Let's not think back on any of this again," she suggested.

Miraculously, they found not only his rucksack and eye patch, but his feathered cap as well among the detritus of the room. The latter was rather the worse for wear however, its jaunty feather having been snapped in two at some point. Didymus twitched his whiskers dubiously at it and then shrugged and put it on anyway.

Sarah caught him up on the finer points of their rescue operation as they made their way past the corpse of Elsbeth's 'bear' and back into the passageway. She was careful to leave out anything that might unnecessarily alarm or grieve him. He had been through quite enough without having to shoulder her burdens as well.

When they arrived back in the main hall, Jareth was alone. He would easily have heard them coming several rooms away and was smiling in expectation as they entered.

Sarah took quick stock of the room and, seeing no little goblin girl anywhere, gave him a puzzled look.

He nodded towards the open doors that lead out onto the castle grounds, but could not answer as Didymus had already thrown himself to the ground in front of his king's feet, seized his hand and launched into a gracious speech extolling the Goblin King's many exemplary attributes including, but not limited to, his bravery, strength, magical prowess, capacity for Goblin Mead, fashion sense and punctuality.

"My liege," he went on, bowing so low that his feather would have brushed the stone floor had it been intact. "Words simply cannot express my gratitude and appreciation for your generous and wholly unexpected participation in my liberation. I am eternally grateful and forever in your debt. I beg that you would consider me your most humble of servants from here on out. You need but ask and any task or service that it is in my power to carry out for you shall be done at once! At any time, day or night, winter, spring, summer or fall, I am at your command!"

Jareth's amused condescension changed swiftly to alarm and then on to outright panic during the course of Didymus' recitation. Sarah had a hard time maintaining her composure and really only managed to do so at all because she knew it would injure her friend's pride if she were to laugh. Instead she left them and made her way outside.

The sun was warm and she stopped for a moment on the steps, thankful for the gentle glow on her face. She hadn't been so sure she would ever see it again and the gratitude with which she now stood beneath it brought tears of joy that leaked out of her closed eyes and ran in silent streams down her cheeks.

"Why are you crying, miss lady?"

Sarah opened her eyes to find the Elsbeth goblin sitting on the thick marble balustrade a few feet away. Her skinny legs hung over the edge, kicking back and forth like a child's. "Because I'm happy," she said with a smile.

The goblin seemed to think this over seriously for a moment and then squinted her eyes nearly shut and scrunched up her nose in apparent effort.

"What's the matter?" Sarah asked, puzzled.

"I am trying to cry too," she said and renewed her efforts.

"For goodness sake, _why_?"

"Because I am happy also, so I should cry, right?"

Sarah let out a shaky breath. "No. No you don't always have to cry when you're happy, just sometimes when you're so full of joy that you can't help it."

The goblin looked thoughtful again and then nodded. "Okay."

Sarah thought of the innumerable years that Jareth had suffered with the pain of his guilt, had eschewed any connection to love, affection and sympathy for fear of repeating the horrible mistakes of the past, and how, for all of those same years, the lost, little girl that had been wished away had suffered with the confusion and chaos of a broken mind trapped inside an eternal and unchanging body. It saddened her desperately to think of all the unnecessary misery on both sides for such a very long time.

"Your name is Sarah." It was almost a question.

She blinked and nodded. "Yes, it is."

Smugly, the goblin grinned. "I knew it was. Some things are fuzzy, but I saw you before. You look like spring."

"Uh, thank you…I think," she replied, somewhat at a loss. "What's your name?"

The goblin opened her mouth to reply and then closed it again with a puzzled look. "I don't think I know that yet."

"Perhaps we can help you can choose a nice one for yourself," said Sir Didymus, appearing suddenly at Sarah's elbow. He reached for the goblin's hand and helped her jump to her feet. "Come and take a walk with me, little goblin, and we shall wander where green things soon will grow."

On a whim, Sarah called after them, "Wait, I um…have something for you." She had forgotten she was even holding it, but now she jogged down the steps and handed the pitiful little stuffed bear over to its rightful owner.

The goblin turned it this way and that in her hands as if it were a familiar item that she could not quite place the purpose for. Finally, she brought it up to her nose and kissed it lovingly and then tucked it under her arm as she and Didymus headed out across the lawn.

Sarah watched in silent appreciation as her friend walked through the melting snow, pointing at this and that, chatting animatedly as he escorted his former captor across the grounds to where the garden had once been and soon had her poking curiously through the crust of snow, examining little bits of plants and searching for birds in the skeletal trees. In very short order they were racing happily around the lawn, stomping in puddles of snow melt and mud and laughing happily.

"Wow," she said softly.

"He is quite a unique sort of character, isn't he?"

Sarah turned to find Jareth leaning just outside the door with his arms crossed; watching as Didymus and the goblin frolicked and played as though they'd never once had a care in the world.

"He is that," she said with a smile. "Thank you for helping me save him."

"If I said it was 'my pleasure' you would know I was lying."

She arched an eyebrow at him. "You could just say 'you're welcome' and be done with it, you know."

A smile crept across his face. "You're welcome, Sarah." He pushed off of the doorway and came to stand behind her.

She felt only mild surprise and a warm, fluttery feeling that she wasn't quite ready to examine just yet when he wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her to him. He pressed his cheek against hers and they stood still for a time, watching Didymus and the goblin wander once more in the direction of the gardens.

"She's going to be fine, isn't she?"

"Yes," he said softly. "She is. It will take her some time to acclimate, of course, but she will." He chuckled, "I believe Didymus will see to that."

"And what about you?" She turned her head slightly so she could see his face.

He glanced at her and then looked back out across the lawn, his eyes distant. "I have spent a dozen lifetimes lamenting choices I made and things I left undone. It's going to take me some time to acclimate as well."

"But you will," she said with a smile.

"I will," he agreed. "And I will no longer live with regrets."

He turned her in his arms then and brought his hands up to cup her face, his thumb brushing gently across her cheek. He looked down at her, his expression serious as he held her gaze for a long moment, his oddly matched eyes searching her face. "No more regrets," he said at last and then brought his lips down on hers with gentle force.

He kissed her with a single-mindedness of purpose and such thorough dedication to his task that it made Sarah's toes curl. His lips were warm and soft and when he burrowed his fingers into her hair and angled her head up to deepen their kiss, she let out a sigh that was nearly a moan and felt his lips curl up into a satisfied smile. Her immediate instinct was to pull back, to break off the kiss and lash out with some cutting remark, and then his tongue flicked across her lips and she promptly forgot all about it, sinking into him, opening her mouth under his demanding pressure as he explored her with his tongue.

"Ahem."

They froze.

Sarah felt embarrassment flood through her and pulled hastily away, putting far more space between herself and the King than was absolutely necessary given that they'd already been caught. At the foot of the steps, Didymus stood looking up at them with the little goblin by his side, one eyebrow raised in amused surprise. "My lady," he said with a sweeping bow, tactfully ignoring her flustered appearance as well as Jareth's completely unperturbed one. "Elsie and I have brought you a gift."

"Elsie?" Jareth eyed the goblin who ducked her head shyly, but nodded. He looked skeptical for a second and then shrugged. "Oh well, why not." He inclined his head in grave acknowledgement and said formally, "It is a great pleasure to make your acquaintance…Elsie."

She beamed up at him, pleased, and Didymus bowed his head in appreciation.

He turned to face Sarah. "As I said, Elsie and I have brought you a gift. I do hope you like it."

Elsie scampered up the steps and presented a small packet, loosely wrapped in what Sarah suspected was one of Didymus' more elaborate pocket handkerchiefs. "Happy birthday, my lady," she said with an awkward attempt at a bow and then darted back down the steps to hover just behind Didymus, peeking curiously around his shoulder.

"Birthday?" Sarah said, examining the item with a puzzled expression and then realized. "Oh…"

"That is today, isn't it?" Jareth said with a smile.

"I had forgotten," she said quietly. She carefully unwound the colorful fabric and gasped softly when it dropped away. She held a large flower nearly the size of her hand in the middle of her palm. The bloom was made up of five broad petals that started out a rich, nearly iridescent purple near the heart of the flower and then darkened into a deep, impossible shade of black as they arched up away from the center before tapering into fine points that lightly prickled the skin of her hand. The stamens and pistil that sprang like a tiny explosion from the center of the bloom were purple, tipped with a vibrant turquoise that fairly glowed in the sunlight. It was beautiful and strange like something from an alien planet.

She traced one velvety soft petal with a delicate finger and looked up at Didymus, giving him an incredulous smile. "Unbelievable. Even after everything, you still got me what I asked for for my birthday." She descended the stairs and kissed him softly on his furry cheek. "It's like nothing I've ever seen before. Thank you."

Unable to completely hide his smug expression, Didymus executed another courtly bow with a flourish of his hand. "It gets no rarer than that very flower you hold in your hand, my lady. It is the last black starflower left in this world or any other." He glanced in Jareth's direction. "When this one was plucked from the earth, the rest of them began to return to their former color. They are black no longer."

Sarah looked at the flower in her hand and smiled. "You don't do anything halfway, do you, Didymus?"

"My aim is to be of service, my lady." He was attempting to appear nonchalant, but he smoothed his whiskers and preened a little too casually for her to doubt but that was very pleased with himself.

"May I?" Jareth held out a hand and she carefully transferred the flower from her palm into his. "I'm afraid I did not have the foresight to get you a gift of my own," he said with a wry smile. "But I can, at least, make a small contribution to this one." He held his free hand above the bloom so that it was cupped tenderly between his palms and then concentrated briefly for a moment. "There," he said, handing it back to her gently. "After all that went into its acquisition, I should hate for it to dry out and fade."

Sarah examined the flower, but aside from the slight warmth it retained from his hands, it seemed unchanged. "Is it going to last forever now?"

He chuckled. "Not forever, no." He reached out and gently touched one of the petals. "I am no longer sure that anything should last forever. I have simply made it yours. It will bloom for you as long as you wish it to do so."

"Oh." She smiled, her eyes shining up at him. "Thank you."

He inclined his head without dropping her gaze. "You're welcome, Sarah."

"Look!" cried Elsie suddenly, hopping in place as she pointed excitedly across the lawn. "I see them! Look, Didymus! The birds, they're back!"

It was a pair of curious bluebirds, their brilliant plumage standing out as two vivid splashes of color against the otherwise stark and monochromatic landscape. They swooped down from the protection of the trees and began cautiously exploring the new environment with short bursts of flight and little hopping steps.

The magical wards that had kept the forest creatures at bay for so long were gone at last. It was only a matter of time before the animals began to return to the fields and the silent grounds were teeming with life once more. Soon birdsong and the trilling of insects would fill the silence and, in no time at all, the whole 'kingdom within a kingdom' would be swallowed up by the forest and forgotten.

A smile played across Sarah's lips as she watched the little birds complete their initial assessment and, with a quick flick of their wings, fly up to roost together on the decrepit garden wall. The male gave a preparatory shake of his downy feathers, like a performer about to make his debut, then puffed up his chest and sang a few trilling notes.

They were a portent, she thought as her heart sang right along with him, a sure sign that everything was going to be okay. She looked over at Jareth – maybe even better than okay.

He saw her glance and came to stand behind her, his fair hair tickling her cheek as he leaned forward. "What are you thinking?" His voice was a warm rumble in her ear.

"I'm thinking, 'what now'," she said, which was also true. "Where do we go from here?"

"Well," he began, wrapping his arms around her waist, "With the wards gone, we're free to travel by magic again, so in a few moments we'll attempt to corral Didymus and his new friend, who you will notice have already wandered off again, and then I shall take us all home. Once everyone has had a chance to rest, we'll work on finding a place for Elsie to start her new life in the Goblin City."

"Okay," she said, nodding. "Assuming you wedge a meal in there somewhere, that sounds reasonable." She leaned into his embrace and rested her back against his chest, her stomach fluttering pleasantly at the contact. "What about Didymus?"

"There is a place for him among the palace guards, if he so chooses to accept it, but I am inclined to believe that it will be a challenge convincing him to leave his bog."

She laughed softly. "You're probably right about that. He does take it _very _seriously." She tilted her head back so that she could better see his expression. "And then what about us?"

"Us?" he said, puzzled. "Is there an 'us'?"

She elbowed him sharply in the ribs and he laughed.

"Oh, _that_ us," he said, deftly avoiding any further attacks on his person by simply pinning her arms to her side. "Well, that remains to be seen. I suppose it primarily depends on whether or not we can stand to be in the same room together for more than five minutes without mortal peril as a unifying force." He released her so that she could turn and face him. "I have been alone a very long time, Sarah," he said softly. He reached out and brushed a stray lock of hair from her cheek, tucking it tenderly behind her ear. "I am a solitary creature and unused to the company of others. I'm afraid my bad habits and faults are many and varied." He smiled down at her with a wry twist to his mouth, "difficult as I am sure that is for you to believe."

"I am shocked," she agreed.

He gave her a disapproving look, but went on. "Reasonable or not, my every whim has been indulged for the entirety of my life, for good or for ill."

"You don't say," she said, wide-eyed. "Wow, it sounds like being a king is a pretty sweet gig."

"Sarah," he admonished, aggrieved. "I am _trying_ to be candid with you." He sighed. "I am not a kind man, or a good man. I am not, in the strictest definition of the word, a 'man' at all, and I certainly do not aspire to the foolish pretensions of one. Once before I tried to live up to your expectations as a villain and succeeded all too well, I am simply uncertain as to my chances of success in living up to your expectations as a hero."

Sarah reached up and kissed him softly on the lips. "I don't need you to be a hero, Jareth. Don't you realize that? I just need you to be you. That's it; that's the entirety of my expectations." She smiled. "We've both got rough edges and a lot to learn about each other. And, let's be frank, there's not a chance in this world _or_ the other one that we'll get it right on the first try. But that's okay. We'll figure it out as we go."

"I cannot promise ours will be an easy path," he cautioned.

"I would be disappointed if it was," she said with a smile. "How boring would that be?"

He chuckled. "The one thing I think that I can confidently promise is that it will _never_ be boring." He held out a hand in invitation, twining his fingers with hers. "Come, I think it is high time we left this place." He waved to Didymus and Elsie and they came trotting back, chattering animatedly with one another, barely bothering to acknowledge either Jareth or Sarah.

Sarah shook her head in wonder. Elsie was looking up at Didymus with rapt attention as he expounded on the merits of bog mulch for growing prize-winning rutabagas, of all things. Her face shone with something very like adulation. And Didymus for his part had taken the little goblin completely and wholeheartedly under his furry wing, transferring not even the slightest bit of ill-will or bitterness from his experiences under Elsbeth onto Elsie. Sarah was sure, if she were to ask him why, he wouldn't even understand the question.

"I love you, Didymus," Sarah said suddenly.

Had he been capable of it, Sir Didymus would have blushed an alarming shade of red. As it was, he simply stuttered and stammered charmingly until Jareth reached over and tapped him sharply on the head. "My apologies, my liege," Didymus said stiffly, embarrassed.

"No need, my friend," Jareth assured him cordially. "I was merely fixing the feather on your hat."

Startled, Didymus snatched the cap off of his head to look at it. Sure enough, the bright yellow plume, of which he had been so proud, was back in one piece, hanging from the edge of his cap at a jaunty angle. "Well, I say!" he exclaimed happily.

And then they were gone, and the silence of the courtyard was broken only by the exultant song of a single, joyful bluebird.

The End.


End file.
